This past weekend, the Greene County historical society held its annual “Flashlight Fright Night” Friday, Oct. 27, and Saturday, Oct. 28, with help from Waynesburg University students through Service Saturdays.

The event, which has been held consecutively for the past few years, usually takes placeinside the museum and is a haunted house for which people paid $5 admittance. This year, however, “Flashlight Fright Night” was held outdoors Friday night, but had to be moved the next night due to poor weather conditions.

“Our new student organization service project has been working on a trail for the museum, which is where a lot of the events will occur,” said Kelley Hardie, assistant dean of Student Services and chair of the planning committee for the Greene County Historical Society.

Hardie described the specific features of event as similar to a lot of haunted houses seen around this time of year. For Hardie, “Flashlight Fright Night” is an annual event that is a hit with the people of Greene County.

“I think the community loves this event, which is really great because we’re definitely attracting a younger crowd, which is wonderful because we’re making younger individuals aware of the museum, and all of the many events that we do beyond the Flashlight Fright Night at the museum,” Hardie said.

Hardie said that the high-school-age demographic is targeted for these types of events.

“We target high school students intentionally because we want them to be aware of the museum and the many programs that are offered beyond this event,” Hardie said.

One of the challenges of putting the event together was that the Historical Society’s Harvestfest, which Hardie said has been going on for over 40 years, coincides with the planning of “Flashlight Fright Night.”

“One challenge that people would not realize is that this event occurs two weeks after the historical society’s major event known as the harvest festival,” Hardie said. “The harvest festival is a weekend-long event that has been happening for 40 plus years, so in addition to planning for that event, we’re simultaneously planning for this event. So that creates challenges, because all of our volunteers are stretch super thin, and only have one weekend to kind of recap, relax, recoup and then get ready for the next big event.”

According to Candace Tustin, president of the board of directors and co-chair of the events committee, there were around 60 people there on Friday night and about half that many on Saturday night due to rainy conditions, which moved the event away from the trail. For Tustin, it was important to go through with the event, despite the poor conditions.

“As bad out as it was on Saturday, we were like ‘OK, we promoted this, and we’re going to do it…’ if we’re open and nobody shows up, then we did it, because I didn’t want to flake. They were all in, and I’m like ‘oh my god, these people are great,” Tustin said.

A notable skit from the flashlight fright night included two people dressed as clowns smashing pumpkins, after which the attendees would pick up the pieces.

The historical society made over $300 from the event.

Hardie said that a significant objective for events like these is to raise money for the museum. As a nonprofit organization, Hardie said, the Historical Society needs events like these to continue staying healthy.

“This is a really good fit for the mission of the museum, and a great way for them to raise money towards their organization,” Hardie said.