By Katherine Hatcher | Staff Writer
Trick or treat!
In light of the season, FIJI brought Halloween festivities and scared early with their annual haunted house fundraiser, “Fright Night,” on Fountain Mall.
This year, the event runs from Oct. 16-18 and features a haunted house, a photo booth, a sorority banner competition, lawn games and food vendors. No tickets or entry fee are required. The haunted house contains fog and strobe light machines, various monsters, creatures with masks, surprises that jump out at you and more.
San Antonio senior Alec Stokan, FIJI’s head committee chair for Fright Night, said he thinks the event will successfully scare most participants. He realizes that despite this the FIJIs are not haunted house professionals.
“We want to ride the line between having fun and still scaring people … regardless of who you are, if you don’t like getting scared, you’re probably going to run through here,” Stokan said.
San Antonio junior Aiden Madden, a FIJI Fright Night committee member, said that every individual or group of people who go through the house will have a tour guide. Groups can contain up to eight people.
“They’ll guide you through nine rooms between the three tents … but it’s almost like a self-guided tour,” Madden said. “It’s just the tour guides there in case, you know, someone has an emergency and they need to leave the tent.”
Huntingtown, Md. senior Hunter Kasulke, FIJI’s head of social media, said that the group is also having a $50 Lululemon gift card giveaway on Instagram. To be entered into the giveaway, all students have to do is repost FIJI’s Fright Night giveaway post to their story, follow their account and like the post.
Madden said that in the past, money raised for Fright Night has been donated to the American Red Cross. Though FIJI continues to partner with the ARC, they plan to direct the funds to a more specific cause.the money raised for Fright Night has been donated to the American Red Cross. Though FIJI continues to partner with the ARC, they plan to direct the funds to a more specific cause.
“All the money that we raise through T-shirts and donors, we don’t see a dime of it,” Madden said. “It goes straight to the American Red Cross to help the hurricane victims in Florida of Milton and Helene.”
Kasulke said that the hurricane damage in Florida is unfortunate, but that he’s glad FIJI is able to support a great cause through the ARC and Fright Night. The group’s goal is to raise $15,000 for the victims.
“It’s really cool to actually give back … towards the communities of Florida,” Kasulke said. “Especially when we know several people and Baylor students who are from Florida and have family members that were affected by the hurricanes.”
Madden, like Kasulke, said the fundraiser has been a great opportunity to give back in a fun way.
“This year, we put in a lot of work,” Madden said. “A lot of Baylor students are really enthusiastic about this. … I think a lot of people want to help. It’s not just FIJI at this point. It’s Baylor as a whole.”
Madden said that the haunted house as a fundraiser also allowed the FIJI members to bond as brothers.
“It just kind of lets us really show what we can do when we all come together, and it’s a great event,” Madden said.
FIJI knows that the event bonds members, but Stoken said he wants the event to do the same for others.
“I really do hope people come and want to be here and buy a shirt, knowing more than just it’s a haunted house, more than it’s just a bunch of people being goofballs,” Stokan said. “It’s because we’re trying to raise a goal. We’re trying to raise money towards charity to help the victims,” Stokan said.
Fright Night has been a success in past years, twice winning a University award for best fraternity and sorority event.
Kasulke said that this fundraiser is unique in that it is one of the only ones on campus to be both silly and serious for a cause.
“At the end of the day, it’s really a bunch of college guys and college friends just jump scaring you,” Kasulke said. “It’s something to laugh about and is pretty funny, but it’s something that we really look forward to.”
