Haunted Hallways celebrates 10th year

By Lori Ruhlman

Skaneateles Rotary

Outside, the weather was beyond creepy, and so hundreds of witches and goblins headed to Haunted Hallways at Skaneateles High School on Halloween night.

In addition to being spooked, they were treated to cider and donuts by the Skaneateles Rotary Club.

“On an absolutely miserable night weather-wise, it still managed to be another fun and successful haunt,” said Karen Price, Interact Club advisor who has managed the popular event for 10 years. “The line was steady and long at times.”

According to Price, who pulls in adult volunteers to join the scores of enthusiastic high school students, there were an estimated 500 visitors to this year’s festivities.

This was the tenth time Skaneateles students used their creativity and time to create the event for younger students.

Haunted Hallways started in 2008 at State Street School and moved to the high school in 2015 after a one-year break.

When Beatrice Walton and fellow Interact Club members came up with the idea of Haunted Hallways in the fall of 2008, they never guessed the tradition would live on year after year.

“It’s incredible that everyone followed through over the years to keep it going,” Walton said recently. “I think the main appeal was that it was as much fun for the students who put it on as it was for those who attended.”

Year after year, high school students join the Interact Club with the main goal of helping with Haunted Hallways.

Ask any of the former students and they will give the credit to “Mrs. Price,” the constant, the most dedicated, and the one who devotes many hours to help students invent and create every year.

“It’s all Mrs. Price,” said more than one former Interact Club president.

Donations are collected, and the annual event has raised funds for many causes, including hurricane relief.

Students take the lead on many different aspects, and so the responsibility is spread out among many people, who all contribute to the overall success of Haunted Hallways.

Planning starts weeks in advance and ends up involving many volunteers, including the dedicated Stacy Drake whose creativity helped launch the event.

Drake started volunteering when her kids were in school and continued after her youngest graduated.

The entire Drake family, it turns out, loves Halloween and had previously done many Haunted Houses of their own.

When Haunted Hallways started, it was created to augment the long-standing Rotary tradition of serving cider and donuts on Halloween.

Generations of kids who grew up in Skaneateles might recall attending the Rotary event when it included a costume competition.

Interest in the costume event was waning when a group of high school students had an idea to revive a little of this Halloween tradition and breathe some new life into the long running Rotary event.