On Oct. 29-30, Key Club members got into the Halloween spirit by participating in the Oviedo Haunted House, at Riverside Park. The event was supervised by senior Payton DeMarzo, who has been in charge of the event for the past three years.

Members volunteered in the event by helping decorate the house rooms and scaring visitors. Key Club was in charge of four rooms with themes inspired by popular horror shows and movies:“The Forest,” “The Blair Witch Project,” “The Purge” and “American Horror Story: Hotel”.

Planning and decorating began the week before. Volunteers who wanted to participate in scaring needed to help decorate at least once. Students who came in to decorate every day,got  to choose which house they wanted to scare in.

DeMarzo assinged characters to each person, and she made long lists of who would make a good fit for each scaring role based on each person’s qualities and looks. The makeup for the scarers was done by DeMarzo and professional Halloween Horror Nights makeup artists, who were provided by Riverside Park.

Having only one week to organize the event, Key Club’s biggest challenge was getting all the props necessary to make the haunted house look good. However, members provided most of the props like suitcases, furniture and speakers all which were donated for the purpose of decorating each house. The rest of the props, such as masks and costumes, were supplied by the Riverside Park.

Key Club was also in charge of making their own background settings for the houses. Most settings, which included trees and countertops, were made out of cardboard and were painted by the members.

“It all went really well, I was worried about the rooms not having enough props but everyone pitched in, which added an aspect to every room,” DeMarzo said.

Community service hours played a large role in why members decided to volunteer. Those who volunteered to decorate every day and scared received up to 30 hours, which counted toward Bright Future.  

“I decided to help out because scaring sounds like a great way to get into the Halloween spirit,” Key Club vice-president Christina Nguyen said. “Not only do you have fun decorating with friends but you also get some service hours done.”