Behind the Masks: Redwood’s Terror On Vista Strikes Students With Fear Once Again

On Thursday, October 19th, Redwood’s Link Crew program hosted its annual Terror On Vista. Rangers share their thoughts on planning the event and it’s execution. 

By Solomon Burciaga

Thursday night was a big night for Redwood’s Link Crew. They put on the haunted house of the year with their “Terror on Vista”. But how did this cursed place appear out of nowhere, and vanish in the blink of an eye?

Link Crew is a school organization with both a class and a club that creates events intended for Freshmen. Throughout the school year, Link Crew puts on special activities such as Valentines and Halloween candy grams in order to make our new Rangers feel more included. 

This year’s haunted house was organized by Mrs. Jimenez. Although this is her first year as the Link Crew advisor, the haunted house has been an ongoing event for an estimated 15 years. In the past, it was once hosted in the academic building but soon made its way over to the even more haunting, Sierra Vista.

Jimenez says, “Halloween is not my jam. I don’t mind it, but I thought why not try and keep a very cool tradition.”

Rangers participating in the event were given the option to either choose to work at carnival/food booths or to become a scarer in the house itself. 

Aryel Chavez, 24’, a scarer, and Link Crew member, says, “Right after school we get right to work and start setting up for like three hours.”  Chavez adds that immediately after setting up, the performance runs for two hours straight. For that whole duration, the scare actors are in full horror mode.

“It’s really fun to see it all happen and to know we did that. To hear people talk about it, like that was all us,” says Chavez.

This frightful place wasn’t just created by Link Crew alone but was also a collaboration with the dance and drama programs. Chavez says, “We ask drama for help. They help us a lot with the props that we need.” 

Our dance teachers, Mrs. Bardonnex and Mrs. Lapp, also recruited workers from their dance classes, supplying the horror needed for the house and carnival.

Link Crew has dedicated every 5th period for the past two weeks, making sure that this event was successful. Not only that, but students came together this past Tuesday and Wednesday after school to work overtime for this ghastly party. 

Mrs. Jimenez was delighted with the turnout of the evening. She says, “It went way better than expected. Lots of students and lots of screaming.”

Jimenez adds that for future years she wants to be better organized going into the event. She also hopes to have some scary things above the ground rather than just surface-level.

She says that she had some very good experiences during the night. “One was seeing my students and the people volunteering thoroughly enjoying themselves. And second was seeing the amount of people that showed up.”

Briana Kinsel, 24′, attended Terror on Vista and shares her thoughts on the experience. She says, “It was very scary. Scarier than I thought it was going to be.”

Once the event was finished participants began to clean up Sierra Vista, leaving it cleaner than they found it, only for the Halloween House to disappear once more, and reappear again next October.

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