Experience a promising scream-filled night of terrors that won’t be forgotten as Northwestern State University’s Mu Rho chapter of Sigma Nu Fraternity will hold its second annual “Night of Fright” Haunted House.
The event will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 25, and Thursday, Oct. 26, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. and will be held at 730 University Parkway.
For entry, students must purchase a ticket and fill out a waiver via Sigma Nu’s Instagram page (nsu_sigmanu), both accessible through their bio. Admissions are $10 a ticket and all proceeds will benefit St. Jude Children’s Hospital.
Derrick Varnado Jr., president of Sigma Nu, explained that the fraternity came together last year to brainstorm ideas for a campus event that would serve both the NSU and Natchitoches community.
“We realized that choosing a holiday would be the best time to get people together to do something for a good cause,” Varnado said. “We’ve always put together this big Halloween Party called “Fright Night” for a long time now, but we wanted to do something bigger than ourselves.”
He shared that when the chapter received the Sigma Nu house in 2020, they thought to utilize it to do something for everyone in the community while supporting a charitable cause. Therefore, the organization came up with the St. Jude’s Haunted House.
“So much more goes into this than just throwing decorations on a wall and saying it’s a haunted house,” Varnado said. “There are indoor and outdoor floor plans, budgeting, promotion, costume planning and much more.”
Varnado also added that the chapter has looked forward to this event ever since they hosted the first one in 2022.
“I can see the joy that everyone gets when preparing for the event as well as when it’s being held,” Varnado said. “It’s an amazing feeling when you know you’ve done something good like this but it’s also an even greater feeling when you feel that people have enjoyed it too.”
Alexander Boudreau, philanthropy and community service chairman of Sigma Nu, shared the importance of supporting this event to help others in need.
“We decided to put this event on to help others in need and make a difference a little bit at a time,” Boudreau said.
The national fraternity has an effort called the “Helping Hand Initiative,” which has many partners in other chapters around the country, each contributing in ways that align with their local communities’ needs.
Boudreau also said that volunteering for events, such as this one, is a way to give back to the community and participating in the event helps everyone.
“I would like to add that making a difference isn’t hard, if everyone just puts forth a little effort, we can be the difference that we need to see in the world,” Boudreau said.
Colby Abshire, an active member of Sigma Nu’s philanthropy and community service committee, explained in the previous years the organization did not have a big philanthropy event, but as soon as the idea was brought up, they decided to put the plans in motion.
“For this event, the philanthropy and service committee has put many hours into this event, and as we near the end, there is still a lot of work to do,” Abshire said. “This philanthropy project has been something that we have been thinking about since the idea came to, and now that the time has come, we are more than excited.”
The chapter hopes to bring a new experience for the community, and as they continue to host this event, Abshire said, they’ll continue to elevate the experience for participants.
“Night of Frights is an experience that everyone would be privileged to see,” Abshire said. “We have so many exciting things planned for those two days that people aren’t going to want to miss.”
