Those with arachnophobia should beware. Spiders will be taking over the Douglas-Hart Nature Center this weekend.

A University Foundations class taught by Michelle Hopper, Eastern complex director and instructor, has worked to develop a Haunted Hike and hayride that will be hosted by the Douglas-Hart Nature Center in Mattoon, Friday and Saturday night.

Eastern foundations classes develop a citizenship project as part of the curriculum. These projects are ways for Eastern students to reach out and improve the community.

The theme of the hike and hayride is “Arachnophobia” and will include costumed characters as well as a storyline about spiders taking over the local area.

While the hike is designed to be family friendly, officials encourage families with younger children to attend before dark as it can still be scary on the trails.

Emily Ingram, a freshman English major and a member of the events marketing committee, said although students organized this event for a class, they hope the event will raise awareness of the nature center because not many people go there.

For the project, Hopper organized the class into three groups, marketing, finance and creativity in order to make tasks more manageable. She said work for the project started in August, and it was very difficult to discuss Halloween, but as time went on, the students have gotten more excited.

“Students have made all the decorations,” Hopper said. “Even a zip line to move stuff around. They’ve been very dedicated,” Hopper said.

While this is the first time the Douglas-Hart Nature Center has hosted an event like this, Tina Hissong, the center’s Executive Director, said they have been wanting to do something like this for years, but have only been able to recently because it is so labor intensive.

“Part of it is a revenue producer and fund raiser which we need,” Hissong said. “But it’s really good for the community,” Hissong said.

Hissong said the students involved were able to experience a lot on how to plan, manage money and stay within budget.

“I think in the beginning it was a bit overwhelming, but they’ve really picked up the work,” Hissong said.

The Haunted Hike will be open to the public from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Admittance is $12 for anyone over 12 years old, $3 for children ages 3 to 12 and free for children two years of age and under.

Seth Schroeder can be reached at 581-7942

or [email protected]