Teacher Alison Podmorow (back row third from left) and her Link Crew leadership students at Southern Okanagan Secondary School in Oliver have been working long hours over the past few weeks on their Haunted House project. The music room at the high school has been turned into a haunted house and everyone from Oliver and Osoyoos is invited to attend on Halloween night from 6- 8 p.m. Students will be handing out candy after visitors enjoy their tour of the haunted house. (Keith Lacey photo)
It promises to be a very scary – and fun – Halloween night in Oliver with the return of the Haunted House project spearheaded by a group of 26 leadership students at Southern Okanagan Secondary School (SOSS).
Students from the Link Crew leadership program at SOSS convinced teacher Alison Podmorow to bring back the Haunted House after a hiatus as a means of providing quality family fun and giving back to the community.
“Because of the fire at the school, we hadn’t hosted a Haunted House in a couple of years and thought it would great to bring it back this year,” said Link Crew student Devon Nemeth, who along with good friend Colton Thomsen, have been selected team leaders for the Haunted House project.
For the past two weeks, all 26 students in the Link Crew program have been spending much of their time in the band room at SOSS turning it from a wide open space adored by dozens of musical instruments into an enclosed and claustrophobic haunted house.
On Halloween night, hundreds of local residents are expected to visit the haunted house, where students will be dressed in their wildest ghoulish outfits to scare and entertain all members of the family.
Podmorow said the Haunted House project was a big success at SOSS for six years, but had to be abandoned when the school was gutted due to a huge fire back in 2011.
Because of its success, Podmorow arranged to have the Haunted House project continue at the Oliver community pool for two years.
“We’ve been on a bit of a hiatus the past couple of years because we just moved into the new school and there wasn’t really any place to set up a haunted house,” she said. “The kids in my class were the ones who spearheaded this and wanted to bring it back.
They’ve done all the hard work.”
Music teacher Lisa Ante deserves a shout out of appreciation for agreeing to turn over the music room for more than three weeks and teach her music theory classes in another classroom at the school, said Podmorow.
On Oct. 31, students from Osoyoos Elementary School and Tuc El Nuit School, as well as Grade 8 students from SOSS, will be invited to “take a sneak peak” at the haunted house during school hours, she said.
Starting at 6 p.m., members of the community will be able to receive some chills and thrills by taking the 10 to 15-minute tour of the haunted house.
There won’t be any costs, but donations will be accepted, she said.
“We are going to be accepting donations because it cost quite a bit of money to put on this production,” she said.
Her leadership students have been a pleasure to work with on this project and she’s proud that so many people from the community will be able to enjoy a happy Halloween because of their hard work, said Podmorow.
“Community service is a big part of what this leadership class is all about,” she said. “Each of our students must complete 20 hours of community service and they are all eligible to count the four hours from Halloween night towards those community hours,” she said. “A big part of what we do in this class is about giving back to your community.”
Thomsen said he and Nemeth have had a great time working on this project and so have all of their fellow students.
“We’ve tried to give the kids jobs that they will enjoy and allow them to work beside their best friends,” said Thomsen. “You tend to get more work done when you’re working with friends … we’ve had a blast working on this.”
Podmorow is confident that the Haunted House project will remain an annual event for students involved with her Link Crew leadership class for many years to come.
“It’s a lot of work, but the kids have a lot of fun and enjoy themselves,” she said.
The Haunted House will run from 6-8 p.m. on Halloween night. Candy will be handed out afterwards.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
