by Olivia Discon
After an afternoon filled with costumes and candy at Huntsville Main Street’s Scare on the Square…
…we decided to take our Halloween festivities to the next level by heading to the Haunted Trails at Kate Barr Ross Park. Put on by the Huntsville Parks and Leisure Department, Haunted Trails is like a haunted house…just with way more trees, a few extra screams, and no escape until you reach the end.
Our very own President of the LEAP Ambassadors, Cinthia Villareal, who’s also an intern with the Parks Department, helped organize this outdoor fright fest, so of course, we had to show up and support her creative take on community engagement (read: gleeful terror).
As a group of brave individuals (and maybe a few reluctant ones), we wandered through eerie scenes, from a haunted psych ward to a creepy scarecrows, with each turn holding horrors in and of themselves.
The group was doing fairly well throughout. Well, that was until the clowns.
Michelle, who had been playing it cool all night, took one look at the clowns and immediately shrieked. To my recollection, she went as far as to say “Anything but clowns!”
Naturally, this drew them right to her, making her and Saara the undisputed scream queens of the evening. It’s safe to say Michelle didn’t enjoy the clown house much.
Chrissy, however, in her classic stoic style, strolled through the whole thing dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, barely batting an eye at the frights around her.
Of course, with Chrissy, you can never quite tell what’s happening in her head!
Haunted Trails was a hilariously spooky way to cap off our Halloween celebrations, and we were all proud to support Cinthia in her haunting (and slightly twisted) community efforts. The event was a fun reminder of how Huntsville, with the help of local SHSU volunteers as actors, brings out the Halloween spirit in ways that are frightfully good for everyone involved.
Center for Law, Engagement, and Politics 