As Halloween drew closer, the halls of Edward Stone Middle School began to take on a festively sinister appearance as students and staff readied the building for a night of tricks and treats.
“It’s kind of like a haunted house, but not haunted,” seventh-grader Eliza Cox said the afternoon of Oct. 29 shortly before Ed Stone opened its doors to the more than 400 visitors who would attend the safe trick-or-treat event.
Cox was among roughly 60 volunteers made up of students, staff, parents and community members who convened at Ed Stone after school that day to help put in place the finishing touches. The results of their collective efforts were impressive. Ghosts hovered in the air, chilling drawings of clowns and other horror film characters lined the walls, and spiders and other spooky surprises lurked behind nearly every corner of the school’s three floors.
“We’ve been decorating the halls and putting balloons up and just getting everything ready,” seventh-grader Aria Gutierrez said, explaining students and staff had begun preparations for the highly anticipated event at the beginning of the week, eager to welcome community members into the building.
Haunted Halls first was launched in 2022 by the Family and Community Connection Committee, a group of teachers that formed after the school adopted the Leader in Me initiative.
“Our goal is to be able to show the good things that are happening, so one of the initiatives we talked about was how do we get families into our building to see good things,” math teacher and committee member Dev Rohr said.
Rohr got the idea for Haunted Halls from a similar event held at the junior high school he previously taught at. He presented the idea to his co-committee members, and they decided to adopt it and make it their own. They got community partners on board to pass out candy
and interact with families, secured donations from local businesses, and recruited parents to help with set-up.
“It’s a really good way just to have businesses show support, and that way they can connect with our school families and communities,” Rohr said.
But perhaps no one looks forward to Haunted Halls more than the students who help to create it.
“I’m very excited to participate in something new at my new school and I wanted to do a lot of things so I have fun and just feel the vibe more at this school,” seventh-grader Maleah Gilbert said.
Fellow seventh-grader Draya Jones saw the event set-up as a way to further connect with her classmates, teachers and school in general.
“I wanted to connect with the school more and decorate and see all the teachers and kids participate and decorate,” Jones said.
They were all happy to have the opportunity to volunteer for their school.
“One thing I will recommend for the younger kids, when you get older: volunteer for different things,” Cox said. “Volunteer to do good things in the world, because in the future it could help you get into a college you want to get into and it could go on your work resume, your college application, and it can just help you later in life.”
Rohr and the rest of the Family and Community Connection Committee plan to provide further opportunities to involve community members, parents and student volunteers in the future, including with an end-of-year picnic and the Edward Stone Middle School Family and Community Movie Night at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6, at the Capitol Theater. This event will be free to attend, with tickets sponsored by Tim Robberts and popcorn provided by Dixon’s Seamless Gutters LLC.
“The overall goal is to continue to bridge the gap of community and school in order to bring everybody together to show that our school is doing great things, and to continue to invite them in for other volunteer opportunities because we would love to have more parent volunteers in our buildings,” Rohr said.
Those wanting to volunteer should email dev.rohr@bcsds.org or melody.lawson@bcsds.org.
