Halloween is a time when families come together to enjoy the spooky season, sweet treats, and fun costumes. Haunted High at Piscataway High School, organized by its chapter of Future Business Leaders of America, is certainly no exception, introducing a new frontier of halloween spookiness while advocating for a good cause.

Haunted High occurred this year at PHS on Thursday, October 30 between the hours of 6-8PM. It is an event where children under the age of 13 are free to roam across the F wing with their families, where classrooms are converted into all sorts of themed rooms, from calm karaoke rooms with coloring to terrifying haunted mazes filled with scarers.

These rooms are led by various clubs, some of which include FBLA (the host club), JROTC, American Sign Language Honors Society, Med Club, Key Club, Hosa, UNICEF, Anime / Manga Comic Club. Moreover, the event annually contributes all proceeds to the Alzheimer’s Association, and this year’s event generated over 400$ through ticket sales.

Volunteers act as the backbone of Haunted High, leading many activities and rooms through creativity and hard work. Members of JROTC and the Anime / Manga Comic Club created a terrifying maze where children are escorted by a guide through a dark path with horrifying jump scares and dreadful screamers all around. At the end, after the children pass the “deceased” body on the ground, the brave survivors are given a generous serving of candy.

On the other hand, Key Club had a section of F wing portioned off, with a multitude of tables with fun activities for younger kids. Activities included coloring, face painting, and slime making. When asked about her experience painting the faces of children in Haunted High, Key Club member Jiya Patel shared, “I love it! It’s so much fun!”. Key Club also had a table where Joshua Wu and Evan Henry guided kids with “making slime with the kids,” which seemed to be a fan favorite in the event.

We also had the pleasure of speaking with Jennifer, the Alzheimer’s Association’s program manager. Jennifer told us that, “The Alzheimer’s Association is the largest nonprofit organization that dedicates research to finding treatments and a cure for Alzheimer’s,”. She also told us that events like haunted high, “ bring great awareness and are a fun activity to help support bringing donations in to find a treatment.”