This year, October 27th, Piscataway High School once again hosted their Haunted High event, where several clubs stayed after school to redecorate classrooms into fun Halloween themed activities in the name of prom fundraising and school spirit.
On Friday, October 27th, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) held their first service event of the year; Haunted High, as they raised over $600.
Haunted High is an annual Halloween themed event held by Piscataway FBLA. The event is catered towards children 13 and younger and provides a fun and safe local event families can attend to have fun and engage in their community.
During Haunted High FBLA teamed up with over 18 clubs and organizations at Piscataway High School. Each of these clubs involved in Haunted High compete with one another to create the most creative, fun, and scary room in the High School.
Senior Shrushti Girish, FBLA’s president described how the event has become not only an FBLA tradition but a Piscataway High School tradition as many students come together to help make the event happen
“It’s really one of the biggest events held at the school every year and it’s really become something everyone looks forward to participating in and attending every year,” Girish said. “It’s a collective effort by many people and by including many different clubs and people in the event, Haunted High has become very diverse and inclusive.”
Vice President for FBLA, Pranshu Patel talked about how the event provides a fun opportunity for members to engage with their community and raise money for a good cause.
“When I volunteered during the past Haunted Highs, before I was an officer, I remember how fun it was to work with other members and see all the different rooms,” said Patel. Everywhere I looked there was always someone smiling and laughing. It’s really fun and it’s for a good cause, plus there’s candy so what’s not to love?”
The event drew a large crowd and raised over $600 for March of Dimes. This year FBLA also donated over 74 pounds of leftover candy from Haunted High to the Somerset County Food Bank.
Another aforementioned club, Key Club, member Jannah Abousalem talked about the changes her club made in order to improve this year’s Haunted High. More specifically, the choice to make Key Club’s attraction a frightening horror experience.
“The stuff we have planned is more geared towards older kids, middle schoolers and high schoolers,” Abousalem said. “Definitely the scariest thing Key Club has done before.”
And the scares were definitely successful as the majority of the tweens and older children enjoyed the Key Club attraction more compared to other clubs who focused more on entertaining the younger kids.
Not that all the attractions were focused on scaring teenagers. Many children also enjoyed Haunted High at the more child oriented attractions.
“Our theme was the movie Madagascar, we mainly did it for the kids,” Aliyah Traore, one of the vice presidents of the National Honors Society, said. “We dress up in costumes. Sarathy [the National Honors Society president] got his face painted and was in a lion suit. We bought over two hundred bags of popcorn and we still ran out because the kids ate so much.”
However not every club had a shockingly extravagant or different attraction. Some clubs opted to go with a more traditional route.
“We’re selling donuts, just like last year.” Amrita Subedar, the Student Council President, said.
Regardless of its newer or older attractions, made for older or younger kids, this year’s Haunted High had a little something to satisfy everyone.
