Student-led haunted house works to give back to the community

A new season is here and the fall activities are beginning to fill up the free-time of many. Some people choose to pick apples or do corn mazes, while others enjoy celebrating Halloween and visiting many haunted houses around the state.

Last year’s haunted house staff. Many of the staff return each year, including some students that have already graduated. | Photo Credit: Christine Lopez

Among these options is the Holt haunted house, which is held in the “haunted” basement of Hope Middle School. This is the 9th consecutive year that students at Holt have designed and created a haunted house for the community to enjoy, advised by Mrs. Christine Lopez for the past 8 years.

Each year, the students come up with a theme that each room in the haunted house follows. The group begins their work on the production early in the school year, by deciding on the theme, and works on creating it until it is time to open it to the public.

“There’s a lot of creativity and a lot of hard work to build props, do the makeup, do the costuming, and the creation. I let the kids come up with the theme and then leaders...decide about their room,” said Lopez.

Some of the students that work on the creation and design are returners from previous years, while others joined the group this year. Senior Hailey Miller has been a part of the haunted house for 4 years, starting her freshman year.

“I just have always loved doing it, helping other people, and bringing other people joy… we get an opportunity to show what kids from school have done and contributed and it is just a fun time,” said Miller.

On top of providing a fun experience that brings together the community, the Holt haunted house gives back by raising money to support other programs around the school that need funding.

“There was a need to raise funds to help kids who were in art [classes] to have better opportunities… all the proceeds are split between the art program and Challenge Day,” said Lopez.

The haunted house continues to be a favorite activity for the Holt community year after year, along with raising money to support future student events.

This year's haunted house is called Scary Tales and is on Friday, October 26th and Saturday, October 27th from 7:00 to 10:00pm in the Hope Middle School basement. Tickets are $5.00 and along with the haunted house, they are also having a pumpkin patch, games, cider and donuts.

The official flyer for the event is below: