Annual Halloween tradition mixes fright and fun, showcases extraordinary student creativity and entrepreneurism
SUNY Fredonia is always on the lookout for new majors it can offer to students. Mike Raisch, however, came up with a new one on his own.
“I’m a Halloween major,” says Raisch.
Granted, if you comb through the hundreds of pages in the college’s Course Catalog, you won’t find a reference to support his claims, but that doesn’t deter him in the least.
“No, really,” he insists. “I’m actually going to school to learn how to scare people.”
Raisch, a senior from North Tonawanda, N.Y., is the president of SUNY Fredonia’s Interactive Theatre Society, which will host its third annual “Terror in the Trees” event for the next two Thursday-through-Saturday evenings. And Raisch’s Halloween degree is, in reality, an Interdisciplinary Studies major which, like any good potion, is a perfect blend of ingredients that aren’t usually found together — business, theatre and gothic literature courses, in this case.
Terror in the Trees is a walkthrough attraction that consists of a cast of more than 50 of the campus’ most passionate Halloween enthusiasts who either dress up as, or otherwise construct, numerous outlandish creatures and bone-chilling scenarios in the essence of the Halloween spirit. The event, which runs from 8 to 11 p.m. each night, takes place in the campus woodlands off Ring Road near the Lake Shore Savings Clock Tower.
“It takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete…according to survivors,” Raisch advises.
Raisch and his fellow students have created more than a dozen “haunts,” the industry term for the gory and disturbing scenes that populate the walking tour of ghastly horrors which visitors experience. After seeing some of the scenes, most agree the term “haunt” seems more appropriate than “attraction.”
“It’s definitely not designed for younger kids or anyone with a queasy stomach,” he cautions. “Some of our haunts are pretty intense.”
In addition to the scary scenes, live music performances will entertain the attendees, including Premium Blend and The Guerrillas — two a cappella groups on campus. T-shirts and other souvenirs will also be available.
So how did all of this get started? For Raisch, it was the continuation of a desire to do a good deed while growing up, together with the good fortune of being able to pick up where previous Fredonians left off.
“I’ve been supporting him with this stuff since he was 12,” joked Paul Raisch, Mike’s father who drove down the New York State Thruway with a truckload of materials and props for his industrious son in the days leading up to the event.
While in middle school, Raisch was profoundly affected by the tragedies on Sept. 11, 2001, and wanted to raise some funds which he could donate to the Red Cross relief effort. His father pointed out that Halloween — Mike’s favorite holiday — was fast approaching, and maybe there was an opportunity linked to that.
So Mike and two friends created a haunted house right on his front lawn. After a few trips to the local hardware store they had concocted an experience that drew the interest of dozens of neighborhood kids and their families.
“Within a couple of days they raised $250,” his father recalled. “Then he got his church involved, and the number jumped to over $1,000.”
Mike had found his calling. He continued his annual tradition throughout high school, creating more elaborate haunts — and raising more money — every year. He later adopted the Make a Wish Foundation as his charity, providing them with $5,000 a year by the time he was finished.
Fredonia’s haunting history dates back a little earlier to 1997 when, according to Associate Director of Residence Life Kathy Forster, a hall director named Patrick Mandia gathered dozens of students and a budget of just $100 to create a wooded walking tour called the Haunted Forest. Managed by a Student Association (S.A.) group known as the Haunted Forest Association, it operated the event just one weekend per year and attracted a few hundred attendees, with all of the money it raised donated to Camp Good Days and Special Times.
However, after several years of growth and prosperity, it experienced an unsuccessful student transition following the 2005-06 academic year, causing the organization to lose its momentum and essentially stop operating.
Enter Raisch who, following his freshman year in 2006-07, learned of the organization’s history — as well as the many props and financial resources that lay dormant in the S.A. office since the previous group’s dissolution. What more could a Halloween lover ask for: the chance to bring something back from the dead!
But Raisch and his fellow fright-festers have taken it to a new level. They’ve added an extra weekend’s worth of dates. They’ve made the haunts more elaborate and realistic. They hold auditions to ensure that the very best actors are chosen for the parts that require the most realistic interactions with the public. They’ve invested in strobe lights and fog machines, and built manually-controlled objects with moving parts. They’ve even commissioned a local contractor in recent years to create more elaborate sets.
In other words, he’s done what real businesses do.
“For us it takes just two months (to produce this event), since we can’t start until early Sept. every year,” explains Raisch. “In the real world, it takes several months. Many start building their haunts around July.”
Each year a few of the components are repeated, but Raisch’s team likes to change them up whenever possible to keep the content fresh and each year’s experience distinct and memorable.
The organization has now become fairly self-sufficient, as all of the proceeds it generates are funneled right back into the group to foster further growth. The group generated more than $1,300 in its first full year of operation of 2007-08, and exceeded $4,300 last year.
“The Interactive Theatre Society has been very successful as a group,” Student Association General Manager Vince Gugino acknowledges. “Compared to the group that preceded them, they have done a tremendous job sparking interest in their event. They have exceeded the revenue and attendance numbers of some of our more established groups, and have done so with a much smaller budget.”
The group is also to the point where it would like to revisit the charitable roots of its predecessors with the possible formation of an award/scholarship following this fall’s campaign, depending on its results.
In this, his final year at the reins, Raisch is determined to make this year’s event the best ever. But he’s just as concerned about making sure it gets passed down to strong leaders that will keep it going long after he’s moved on in life. He’s developed a “how to” brochure that he’ll be passing along to the Interactive Theatre members, the majority of whom, Raisch says with some relief in his voice, are not seniors.
“I’m trying to leave a legacy behind,” Raisch states proudly. “We’ve created something very special. It’s almost like a show that you’re attending, an experience. We need to make sure people get to enjoy this for many, many years.”
Interested in getting your own blood flowing? Admission to Terror in the Trees is just $4 in advance at the SUNY Fredonia Ticket Office, located in the Williams Center on campus (www.fredonia.edu/tickets/; 716-673-3501), or $5 if paying “at the door” (onsite at Ring Road, located just off the campus’ primary Central Avenue entrance). The general public is welcome and encouraged to attend any of the dates (Oct. 22, 23, 24, 29, 30 and 31).
