Halloween is right around the corner, which means Pemberton Hall will be hosting its annual haunted house.

The haunted house will be on Oct. 18 and 19 from 8 p.m. to 11p.m. in Pemberton Hall.

The event will take place in the basement and students throughout campus will be volunteering as actors in the haunted house.

Imani Ryan, a senior FCS family services major and Pemberton Hall president, said the turnout in previous years has been rather large, so they decided to do things differently than in years past.

“Because we normally get a big crowd of people and it gets really crowded in the lobby, we’re going to start having people in our great hall,” Ryan said. “We’re going to play a movie and there’s going to be snacks, cider, candy and popcorn.”

Last year the haunted house raised $803, which is donated to HOPE, a domestic violence shelter in East Central Illinois.

“This year our goal is to get $1000,” Ryan said.

The haunted house costs two dollars to get in, but other donations are welcome.

“Because it is two dollars to get in, that obviously is a large portion, but we also just collect extra donations on top of that,” said Alana Reinhardt, a senior public relations major and vice president of Pemberton Hall.

Not only is the haunted house open to Eastern students, but it is also open to community members.

Ryan and Reinhardt believe this could be a big bridge between Eastern’s campus and the Charleston community.

“For a really good cause and a good cost, this could be a really cool opportunity for people to come out and get in the spooky season and see community members engage in Halloween as well as students here on campus,” Reinhardt said.

There are not exact numbers of how many people came last year, but this year Pemberton would like to have statistics of how many people came along with how much was made with separate donations.

“We do not know last year how many people came through because we just didn’t really keep track so this year we would like to kind of really try to keep track so we can have an exact statistic of how many people come through,” Reinhardt said.

Kate Figlewski can be reached at 581-2812 or at kjfiglewski@eiu.edu