Feeling brave? Well then come out to see the Kern Valley High Haunted Barn, which in its third year has expanded to be one of the must see Halloween attractions in the KRV.
“It got really big really quick,” said Maghan England, the Agricultural Sciences Department Chair and one of the three FFA advisors at the school that helps put on the Haunted Barn, “We had tons of people come our first year, and the lines were super long, so we decided that we could morph it into a good fundraiser.”
England told me it takes roughly three weeks to transform the fully functioning cattle barn into a haunted attraction, which is conceived by the students.
“They're kind of the backbone of it so they make the decisions and decide what each room is going to be themed,” England said.
Students like Christine Laveck, who's an actor in the barn this year.
“I'm excited. I love scaring people,” Laveck said.
The students are the brains behind the themed rooms.
“One of the main themes for the haunted barn this year is insidious, which I had come up with,” Laveck said, “I had never seen those movies before.”
However, after looking at photos and watching the movie for inspiration, things came together,
My friend, she helped me with the makeup, my AG teacher helped me find this as my veil candle and then the dress my best friend had lying around. So it's kind of perfect.”
Madeline Edwards, FFA advisor and Agriculture Education Teacher says that putting on the Haunted Barn helps expose students to FFA that wouldn’t otherwise get involved.
“It also just gives them an opportunity to express themselves creatively as well. So they could, as long as it is school appropriate, dress in whatever cool Halloween costume that they can come up with.
The students do more than just act; they also help build the decorations and props.
“I teach a floral design class and they make all of the paintings and artwork that's in the rooms,” England said.
“We call them the shop boys, my students in the AG Mechanics class that want to make projects that get to be in here,” said Makaylah Isais, Agricultural Mechanics Teacher.
The barn utilizes volunteer work from the community, donated items, and clever printmaking to keep costs down, and has become one of the school's largest fundraisers.
“All of the skeletons were actually made out of milk jugs and we used heat guns and melted them around to make skulls. And we're able to shape that out rather than buying a bunch of new ones,” Isais said.
The creation of the barn brings together students.
There were like a bunch of rough patches but like we all put this all together and it's really amazing to see what this barn turned into,” said student Allie Lumpkin, “We got so much closer being in here all the time. And then I have friends outside of here that are really excited to come up.”
The Haunted Barn is open on October 27 and 28, with a no-scares lights-on Funny Farm version taking place from 7-8 and the scary version happening from 8pm to 10pm.
“Because it's put on by kids, most people think it's going to be cheesy and it's not actually going to scare them,” said England. “So it's always fun to hang out at the end of the maze and see everybody come out and grown adults you know the teenagers that are way too cool, actually being scared.”
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