by Maggie Ganley–The night was dark and growing cold. Monsters, maniacs, and more started to gather on the M as the hour drew near to 7 o’clock. It was time for the Halloween scavenger hunt to begin.
Halloween night is known as a night of celebration for college students. It’s a time when students can get dressed up and “live a little” like they did when they were kids.
Although a large portion of college students turn towards parties to celebrate their Halloween festivities, organizations on campus aim to provide students with other, safer options.
This year, resident assistants Krista Waite and Iandra (Iggie) Estupinian enlisted the help of other RA’s on campus and put together a Halloween scavenger hunt.
The scavenger hunt wasn’t so much about finding items, as it was about finding answers. Students were challenged to visit seven stations scattered throughout campus and answer a Halloween related riddle at each station. If they answered the question right within three tries, they were rewarded with large pieces of candy. If they did not, they received smaller candies.
The riddles proved to be creative, but were sometimes tough to crack. Resident assistant Rachel DeJong said that only three out of ten groups got the answers correct at her station.
Students wracked their brains for the answers to all of these Halloween classics and usually had an “Oh, duh,” moment once the answers were revealed. All in all, it proved to be good, clean fun.
The party followed in the Roadman lounge after the scavenger hunt drew to a close. There students could find a host of activities such as a costume contest, a make your own trail mix bar, and so on.
The party wrapped up at nine and it was time for the students to head back with their sweet rewards.
Many students voiced their excitement about the scavenger hunt and party to Krista during the course of the event and said they hope to see it back on campus next year.
Tyler Haberman participated in the event and mirrored this excitement. “It was very entertaining and thrilling! It was funny to see my fellow students dressed as Halloween’s spookiest characters.”
Krista was thrilled to hear all of the feedback. “Hearing that was really good, because the work that we put into it actually felt like it paid off,” Krista said.
The event proved to be a success and around eighty students participated in the festivities.
—
The planning behind the Halloween scavenger hunt started back in September. Part of Krista and Iggie’s duties as RA’s is to come up with an active program. One night they were brainstorming about what to do.
“Me and my co-worker were talking one night about what to do and Krista told me that two years ago she made a scavenger hunt. Then I remembered in high school, my drama class made a riddle hunt so that’s when we decided to create the scavenger hunt with riddles. Plus, it was October and the idea of a Halloween scavenger hunt sounded like so much fun to get everyone involved in,” Iggie said.
From there, they started enlisting the help of fellow RA’s to help get the event off of the ground. Many RA’s decided to lend a helping hand, but it still took crucial organization and scheduling skills in order to work around everybody’s busy lives. During this process, Iggy took it upon herself to start creating the riddles.
Although she loved the task, it did take a bit of time. “Due to always solving riddles with my friends, I knew the rhythm of riddles, so that made the process a bit easier. To be honest, it took be about a good two and a half weeks to come up with 42 original riddles. It was hard, I’m not going to lie,” Iggie said.
After many shopping trips and nights planning, the scavenger hunt proved to pay off.
The style of this year’s scavenger hunt also seemed to be more well received than the one that was put on during the Halloween of 2016, which was more of a race.
Kaitlynn McShane said, “I really like how this year it wasn’t necessarily like a race. I remember sophomore year I almost wrecked my Halloween costume…running around because it was like a sprint to every area we were supposed to go.”
Rachel DeJong agreed that the scavenger hunt that year was exhausting and she didn’t enjoy her experience.
In that way, Krista and Iggie took the input from previous years and put on an event that more students could enjoy.
All in all, they walked away with a sense of pride for their event.
“It was a lot, but it was a lot of fun,” Krista said with a laugh.
Leave a Reply