 Mike Raisch encounters a giant Venus Flytrap in the Campus Woodlot during Halloween. |
SUNY Fredonia is always on the lookout for new majors it can offer. Mike Raisch, however, came up with a new one on his own.
“I’m a Halloween major,” said Raisch.
If you comb through the course catalog, you won’t find it, but that doesn’t deter him.
Raisch, a senior from North Tonawanda, N.Y., is president of Fredonia’s Interactive Theatre Society, which hosts “Terror in the Trees,” an annual walk-through attraction which features a cast of more than 50 of the campus’ most passionate Halloween enthusiasts. His Halloween degree is, in reality, an Interdisciplinary Studies major which, like any good potion, is a perfect blend of ingredients not usually found together — in this case, business, theatre and gothic literature courses.
Raisch and his fellow students created more than a dozen “haunts,” the industry term for the gory and disturbing scenes that populated the walking tour of ghastly horrors and bone-chilling scenarios that took place in the campus woodlands off Ring Road the last two weekends in October.
For Raisch, it was the continuation of a good deed he began in middle school, together with the good fortune of being able to pick up where previous Fredonians left off.
Raisch was saddened by the tragedies of Sept. 11, 2001, and wanted to raise funds for the Red Cross. So, he and two friends created a haunted house on his lawn, which became a neighborhood tradition. By his senior year of high school, he was creating more elaborate haunts and raising $5,000.
Fredonia’s haunting history dates back to 1997 when Patrick Mandia, a residence hall director, gathered dozens of students and a budget of just $100 to create a wooded walking tour called “Haunted Forest.” It operated one weekend per year, drew a few hundred attendees, and donated its proceeds to Camp Good Days and Special Times.
However, after several years of growth and prosperity, the Haunted Forest lost its momentum and ceased operations after 2005.
Enter Raisch who, following his freshman year, learned of this history — and the many props and resources that lay dormant in the Student Association office. What more could a Halloween lover ask for: the chance to bring something back from the dead!
But Raisch and his fellow fright-festers took it to a new level, making the haunts more elaborate and realistic, choosing the best actors, and even commissioning contractors to create more intricate sets.
The organization has become self-sufficient, going from $1,300 in revenue in its first year to more than $5,600 in 2009. The group also hopes to revisit the charitable roots of its predecessors and create a scholarship in the future.
In his final year, Raisch is making sure this gets passed down to strong leaders that will keep it going long after he’s moved on in life — which will start with an apprenticeship at The Bates Motel, a professional haunt near Philadelphia named after the famous setting in the horror classic, “Psycho.” He’s developed a “how to” brochure that he’s passing along to the Interactive Theatre Society members, the majority of whom, Raisch says with relief, aren’t seniors.
“I’m trying to leave a legacy behind,” said Raisch. “We’ve created something very special. We need to make sure people get to enjoy this for many years.”
