On Thursday, October 26, freshmen attended the annual Link-O-Ween Haunted House. Every year, the event takes place in the campus basement and is given a theme, this year being “Dead Disco.”
Organized by the Link Crew Board, preparations for the event began during the first week of October. Meetings were held weekly to plan the various elements that go with the haunted house. With help from Director of Student Life and Leadership Alisia Bergholm, Link Crew Board members worked together to design fliers, send out emails and order costumes and several decorations.
“We put in a lot of time and effort into this event, meeting a lot, making posters and coming up with as many ideas as possible,” said Link Crew Co-President Cameron Brady. “With lots of help from Mrs. Bergholm and the girls on Link Crew, we were able to put together, in my opinion, the best Link-O-Ween yet. The freshmen got a good scare and it was a great way for the Link Crew girls to bond.”
In the days leading up to the Dead Disco, Link Crew Board and Club decorated the basement. To fully encapsulate the theme, most decorations were neon, black-light activated. Signs were made with eerie messages, such as “Dance until you die” or “Shake your bones,” using black-light activated paint. Other decorations included skeletons dressed in disco outfits, glow-in-the-dark spiderwebs, spookily painted pumpkins and a disco ball hanging from the ceiling.
On October 26, Link Crew Board and Link Crew Club were on campus at 5:00 p.m. to begin getting in costume and finishing last-minute preparations. All were given a white t-shirt to design however they wished, with many cutting holes and splattering fake blood on them. Glow in the dark paint was also available, so many students chose to decorate their shirts using it which contributed to the disco theme. Additionally, Link Crew members were invited to bring any disco outfits they had at home, acknowledging that there was a possibility of paint ruining them. Several took advantage of this opportunity and arrived in seventies apparel, wearing bell bottom pants, flowery dresses, gogo boots and afro wigs. All costumes were altered to look as creepy as possible to emphasize the scary event.
Makeup was also an essential factor in the costume design. English Teacher Robert Rojas has a background in special effects makeup and assisted in designing a spooky look. Some students chose to do their makeup using neon products, resembling a clown. Others dripped blood down their face and arms, to fully take to the theme of dead disco.
After a long preparation, freshmen finally arrived at 6:30 p.m. to the Innovation Lab. Although the event is traditionally held earlier during the school day, this year’s Link Crew Board wanted the most frightening atmosphere possible and hoped to wait until the sun had set before beginning the event. The basement becomes an even more sinister setting without the possibility of natural light.
“We set up the basement to look super spooky and all got really dressed up to look as scary as possible. It’s always so much fun to dress up and this year’s theme was really good. I also think jumping out at the freshmen is really funny and I hope they had a really good time,” said Link Crew member Kaylee Ellerhorst.
The walk-throughs for the haunted house began at 6:45 p.m. with Link Crew members taking groups of six. Freshmen who were not interested in the haunted house watched the movie,“Hocus Pocus,” and enjoyed the Halloween candy provided.
The tours started in the basement hallway, then students were guided through the senior locker room, down the hallway again, through the shower room and ended outside. After the Vipers thought the scare was over, Associated Student Body (ASB) officers jumped out for one last spook.
“The haunted house was so fun, and I would recommend it to all the freshmen next year. It was way more scary than we thought, and Link Crew did a great job,” said freshman Hayley Langridge.
The haunted house is a memorable event for every NDB class and is considered to be a rite of passage. The Vipers had a few hours to spend getting to know each other better than before and were able to celebrate Halloween a few days early.
