Story by Breanna Sill, Staff writer
Murray State students and community members were treated to cannibals, an evil carnival, a sadistic dollhouse and other spooky haunts at Sigma Chi’s haunted house Oct. 29 and 30.
Social sororities competed for money to donate to their individual philanthropies by participating in the haunted house. Alpha Delta Pi’s theme was Haunted Hospital, Alpha Omicron Pi’s theme was Haunted Asylum, Alpha Sigma Alpha’s theme was Dolls, Kappa Delta’s theme was Carn-Evil, Sigma Sigma Sigma’s theme was Witch Coven and Alpha Gamma Delta’s theme was Cannibals. Sigma Chi also had area in the house and their theme was Morgue/Funeral Home.
The Greek organizations had been planning for the haunted house since April.
Jared Stallons, senior from Cadiz, Kentucky, and president of Sigma Chi, said his main goal was to make sure the sororities who participated chose themes for their areas that had flow and logic.
“I would communicate with them when one sorority would choose a theme so that they would know not to repeat a theme,” Stallons said. “Or so that they could all choose themes that would make sense with the other themes that were there.”
Awards were given to sororities that showed excellence in their themes and areas. The competition was judged by different university and community figures.
The Community Favorite Award was presented to Tri Sigma for their Witch Coven theme. The award was presented to the sorority based on votes from university faculty including Bob Davies, Murray State President; Don Robertson, vice president of Student Affairs; Evan Ditty, Greek Life coordinator and Re’Nita D. Avery-Meriwether, Director of Curris Center Student Life and community leaders Jack Rose, Mayor of Murray, and Hollis Alexander, Judge Executive of Trigg County, Kentucky. Kappa Delta was awarded the Participation Award.
As a whole, the haunted house raised more than $1,300 over the two days it was open. Of that money, $200 was awarded to Tri Sigma and $100 was awarded to Kappa Delta for their respective philanthropies.
The remaining $1,000 was given to a cause very near and dear to the fraternity’s heart.
“One thousand dollars of the proceeds went The Huntsman Cancer Institute,” Stallons said. “The Huntsman Cancer Institute is a cancer research facility out in Colorado and it is Sigma Chi’s national philanthropy.”
While Stallons said he did not have a favorite area of the haunted house, he said he really enjoyed ADPi’s Haunted Hospital theme, even though he said all the sororities did a great job.
“They (ADPi) did something I have never seen before in a haunted house,” he said. “They made you sit down and like write your name and stuff like that so I think they set a really interesting tone for the rest of the house.”
This was not the first year Sigma Chi had put on a haunted house during Halloween. It was a tradition back in the 1990s and was last held in 2006. Stallons has high hopes for upcoming years at the haunted house.
“Since we raised $1,000 this year we would really like to try and raise $5,000 next year,” he said. “So to do that we have to make sure we can get out to the community even more, make sure we get to all the student groups on campus even more, because advertising was one of the main things we needed to improve on the most.”