Every Halloween, Carterville high school students volunteer to bring scares and screams to Carterville by helping with the haunted hayride. This haunted hayride features multiple different scenes throughout the adventure at James Street Park in Carterville. All of the scenes are created and acted out by volunteers, including the Carterville High School Art Club. 

One of the scenes this year featured a carnival theme, with a painted dartboard game displayed, front and center. Around the dartboard game, clowns of all types filled the area and got closer and closer to the guests. The clowns’ cynical giggles, the sound of distorted carnival music and screams, pulled the guests to the edges of their seats.

“In the scene, I played one of the clowns near the dartboard carnival game. Someone was chained up with darts in her face, and while the ticket booth worker screams at the riders about their tickets, we slowly close in on the wagon,” senior Addy Gill said. 

One of the other scenes included in this ride had two guys. One dressed up on stilts, and the other was a clown yelling at the guests. The clown yelling was senior Logan Drew, and his famous line to all the audience was, “This is all your fault.” 

By doing this, he was attempting to make the audience feel bad for the horrors the clown has faced. Their theme was also based on carnivals, with the clown being a victim of the carnival, and the guy on stilts trying to help him. Senior Azriah Spencer was featured as the clown on stilts. 

Junior Evan Miranti and Sophomore Justice Rawlinson worked hard together to decide how to bring the scare factor to life. “My friend [Justice Rawlinson] and I worked hard on creating a scene in the Hayride that was fun and memorable. We tried multiple things until we finally got what we needed to execute this. I watched videos and made suggestions to my Scout Troop until we came up with something together,” Miranti said. 

Evan was dressed up in his boy scout costume and a wooden tool that he uses to pretend to hit people with it, while his partner in the scene was scaring people with a large prop while hovering it over the trailer filled with guests.

This year’s haunted hayride showcased the creativity and commitment of Carterville High School volunteers as they worked together to bring the community together. From young to old, many people look forward to this spooktacular event every year!