By Laura Klotzkin, Managing Editor and Brooke Trower, Staff Writer
This past October, Daemen University Students had the opportunity to attend a trip to an award-winning screampark in Buffalo called Frightworld.
“Frightworld features five award winning haunted houses under one roof,” the Frightworld website states. “Recognized by Buzzfeed, Travel Channel and The Scare Factor as one of the top haunts in the country, this is Buffalo’s number one haunted attraction.”
Lydia Hepler, second year animation major and off campus events coordinator for the Campus Activities Team (CAT) was in charge of the Frightworld event this year.
“I think it went pretty well. A lot of people were really excited, and we were able to fill all 44 spaces, so it was one of our bigger events,” said Hepler. She aims to plan similar events every month.
The planning process for an event like this involves purchasing tickets for a number of students, typically 44, based on how many students will fit in the bus and how many tickets the CAT team can budget for. For some events, the person planning the event will discuss with the location to get a group reservation.
“Frightworld is the one event yearly that is pre-planned because it’s a repeating event,” Hepler said. “We find enough students to fill a bus excluding myself and one guest that I bring along to help with the trip.”
Student feedback for this event was overall positive.
“I wish we could have had more time, it really was such a great time, and we only got to 4 out of 5 of the houses,” said Colin Hill, a fourth-year PT student who attended the trip. “I nearly left my girlfriend behind in the Grindhouse, she stayed behind while we all darted away from an actor chasing us with a chainsaw.”
Being a highly-rated screampark, it is definitely not the event for the faint of heart.
“My favorite part was interacting with the scare actors. It was greatly upsetting, but I quite find joy in that,” said Hailey Longo, second-year animation major. She explains she had an excellent time and feels that her friends did too.
“Normally events that get a lot of attention are going to the mall and hanging out,” said Hepler. “While those are fun, I think that we should have more events where we are doing things.”
The CAT team is eager to connect more with the Daemen community. Hepler encourages students to reach out to the team at any time and recommend future events.
“We always take into consideration student information,” Hepler said.