Whether I was in 5th grade and dressing up, playing games, and singing with my friends, or in 9th-grade volunteering to help with activities, the Fall Festival has always been something I’ve looked forward to during my 14 years at RMA. More specifically, I was ecstatic to see the Haunted Hall and how students decorated it each year. I remember being in 3rd grade, holding my best friend’s hand and walking through fearfully while also admiring the decorations and thinking all the high schoolers were so cool. This year, as part of Beta Club, it was my turn to not only take part in the Haunted Hall but take charge and plan it!

While the Haunted Hall used to be a fundraiser for the senior class trip, this year it was decided that the Senior Beta Club would be in charge. With only one week to plan, we had to work fast. Creating a floor plan on Wednesday with a few of my fellow seniors, we began going through decorations and finding out what we needed. As the week went on, the pieces began to fall in place, and we had a total of 20 people ready to help out on Friday afternoon!

We (primarily seniors) began setting up after lunch. Trying to make the most of what we had and not to spend too much extra money, we had to get creative. We spent our afternoon setting up, making runs to the store, and putting everything together. After school, a few of us stayed back and finished the final touches, and by 4:25 p.m., we were ready to go!

The end result was pretty awesome: We divided the Haunted Hall into three different sections. The first was a butcher shop starring Thomas Honey, Hank Berry, and Grace Bone. We felt like our first section should’ve been one of the scariest, and they pulled it off really well, with multiple kids coming back around just to tell me how “the boys in there are super scary!” Our next section was an insane asylum featuring our very own seniors Gabbi Ams, Jodie Coble, Madisyn Rogers, and Adrienne Mosely, as well as sophomore Elizabeth Paszek who all held baby dolls and wore “blood-covered” gowns, making this section terrifying! The last part of the haunted house was our zombie graveyard with sophomores Britt Gaynor, Millar Berry, and Taylor Carmichael, and senior Lainey Overton. Crawling on the floor and hiding behind the “graves,” our zombies definitely scared our visitors. 

With each trip through the hall costing $3, the Haunted Hall ended up raising over $1,000, which will go towards Beta Club’s annual service project. Previous projects included organizing a teacher appreciation breakfast, making various holiday cards for local hospitals & assisting living facilities, adopting a family (providing them with gifts) at Christmas, planning food drives, delivering cookies to the staff at assisted living facilities, and honoring local law enforcement.