As the spirit of Halloween flooded Cabrini’s campus, CAP board’s Freak Week took center stage with several Halloween-inspired events. Freak Week 2010 had some of the most popular events that CAP board has ever created.
One of the new events this year was also one of the most popular. Ghost hunters were invited to campus to discover Cabrini’s past. They toured Woodcrest Mansion and gave an inside look into Cabrini’s own historic building on campus. The ghost hunters had hoped to reveal the truth about rumors of hauntings within the mansion.
“We actually brought somebody in and he found the different hot spots and he confirmed that the mansion was haunted,” Emily Fiore, CAP board vice president and junior secondary education/English major, said.
The tour, which took place on Monday night, was the most popular event during Freak Week.
According to Fiore, more than 230 students, families and staff joined the ghost hunter in finding out the truth behind the walls of the mansion.
Another event that was new this year was the eerie Haunted Mansion tour that took place on Sunday night. The Mansion was transformed into a fright-filled haunted house and guests traveled through the mansion for a creepy walk-through tour.
The groups were lead through the mansion by a volunteer guide that escorted the groups through the mansion and down the stairs near the business office. From there, they were led through the basement, which was swarmed with hidden surprises, and they exited out the stairs near the public safety office.
Hidden in the basement were CAP board members, dressed in black and face make-up, ready to scare the unsuspecting victims.
“It brought us back to being little kids on Halloween,” Ali Thompson, CAP board president and junior business major, said. “We had to dress up with scary make-up and look gross and we got to scare people in the basement.”
Though this was a popular event, a few kinks may need to be worked out for next year.
“I timed it and it took my group three minutes to walk through,” said Nicholas Casey, junior accounting major, said in a recent email, “but besides that everything went really well.”
The CAPture the Clue Mystery Dinner put a comical spin on the haunted festivities. This event is a reoccurring one that is always popular on campus. CAP board brought in an outside theater group to put on this high-energy production.
The show relies highly on audience participation to create the hunt for clues to solve the mystery. Everyone plays a small part in making the production successful.
The event soldout Tuesday night, the night before the event took place.
“People were even trying to get in at the last minute. Every seat was sold out! It was great,“ said Samantha Ysais, freshman English major, in a recent email.
There were 50 tickets available for this event, but CAP board estimated that there was around 55 people at the dinner and had trouble seating some of those extras.
“The only thing I would change was the number of people allowed in to the dinner or the number of tables in the dining room for the event,” said Ysais. “It was a little packed but I didn’t mind so much.”
Freak Week also included a trip to Terror Behind the Walls at Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary for those who love the adrenaline rush of being terrified. After signing their waivers and handing in their tickets, the group of around 50 Cabrini students were split up into several small groups and led into the penitentiary.
“Two groups would go in at a time but they would have you go opposite ways and the entire time, I was holding the hand of the girl in front of me and gripping the hand of the girl behind me because I was so scared,” Thompson said.
The penitentiary was filled with mannequins and real people who jumped from prison cells and ultimately try to give the students the fright of their lives.
“It’s fun being scared,” Thompson said. “I think that’s the whole point of Halloween is that people like being scared.”
The spooky Scavenger Hunt was also a big hit on campus, as students were seen running through campus completely tasks and hunting out their objects. The scavenger hunt was hosted by Cabrini’s radio station, WYBF.
One of the challenges CAP board is always struggling with is attendance. Though an event may be a great time, the ultimate goal is to get as many people involved as possible.
“It’s just really hard, in general, to get anyone to come out of their room and come to an event,” Thompson said.
But for all of Freak Week, attendance was higher than most the others events that are on campus.
“I saw a really big turn out at pretty much everything and there were always really long lines to get in,” said Casey.
Between a well-organized and inspired CAP board team and changes in advertising, this week of events kept a lot of people interested.
“Our board this year is awesome,” Thompson said. “(Higher attendance) might have to do with the way we have been advertising and marketing for our events and I believe it is because of the freshmen class that we have.”
According the Thompson, the freshman class is ready to be involved in on and off campus events.
Each director is responsible for advertising their own events and they have been extremely effective and creative with their advertising of their events. Thompson focuses on pushing them to create bigger and better ads and creating ad campaigns that are outside of the box, such as window painting and using props.
CAP board also looks at previous years and many different acts and shows and tries to choice activities that will work for Cabrini’s student body and what they are looking for in on-campus events.
“It’s really about, when we plan any event not just Freak Week, what will work at Cabrini,” Fiore said. “Not necessarily what will work everywhere, but what will work at our small school.”
Also, the switching of events also keeps the campus interested in what CAP board has to offer. The new events this year were the Haunted Mansion and Ghost Hunters events, which were some of the most popular this year.
“A lot of people came to those events because one, we’ve never done it before and two, I think it intrigues people and pokes at their curiosity,” Thompson said.
