Elementary School Students Enjoy HAND One-Shot Haunted House

The tunnels of Adams House filled with mad surgeons, disembodied heads and dozens of elementary school children on Friday for the annual Halloween Haunted House.

The Haunted House was attended by students from elementary schools associated with Adams' and Leverett's House and Neighborhood Development program (HAND) and also by children who participate in the Philips Brooks House Association (PBHA) Fresh Pond Enrichment Program.

According to the event's coordinator, David S. Abrams '98, the haunted-house illusion was created by decorating the tunnels in the Adams House basement with streamers, strobe lights and blowing fans.

The lights were turned out so those walking through encountered "squishy" things and hanging devices as well as sounds which were triggered with people's steps.

"Every year we try to make it more elaborate," said Abrams, who has been involved in the haunted-house project during his three years in Adams House. "It's a fun thing for the kids and for us," he added.

In the "black box" theater in the Adams basement, there were more displays, including a show set up with a "doctor of death," a refrigerator with "hearts and brains and bones," a "grim reaper" and a formally arranged table with a fake human head under a banquet dish.

The event also featured a Halloween party, arts and crafts, a fortune teller, a magic show and trick-or-treating.

The event was coordinated by the HAND One-Shot Program of Adams House.

"It's really notice to see a great effort by students to get involved in the community, especially with children," said Adams House tutor Leo Trasande. "I was especially impressed by how organized it was and how many different events there were for the kids."

Abrams is in charge of the Adams House One-Shot Program, which enables students to take part in a variety of one-day community-oriented projects.

The arts and crafts portion of the event was run by students from Leverett House. Students from the PBHA Fresh Pond Enrichment Program, as well as volunteers from other house, also helped at the event.

"I was really pleased with this year's haunted house," said Anna Marie L. Tabor '98, Adams House HAND coordinator and a Crimson editor. "I think the kids had a really good time.