Pemberton Hall Council will be hosting the “Pit of Despair” haunted house from 9 to 11 p.m. Thursday.

Groups of six willing participants or victims – depending on how one looks at it – will go down in the basement and break up going down two hallways, ending up in the Pemberton Hall parking lot. 

Attendees can expect to see the staples of horror at the hall, including zombies and clowns.

Michelle Bognanno, a Pemberton resident assistant and sophomore communication disorders and psychology major, said since Carman Hall is closed, Pemberton Hall residents have decided to pick up as the place to have the campus’s haunted house. 

Three residents put the suggestion at the hall council meeting at the beginning of September to have the haunted house in Pemberton. 

Abby Baguisa, Dana Mayfield and Nicci Colucy, residents of Pemberton, got the ball rolling to bring the haunted house over to Pemberton Hall.

Colucy, a freshman sports management major said the Mary E. Hawkins ghost story and the building history were factors, which made her want to have the haunted house. 

The legend states a young student was murdered on a cold winter night.

She was raped and beaten by the janitor and she banged and scratched on the door of the RA on the fourth floor, who would not answer. 

Currently, the fourth floor is shutdown because the flooring is maltreated.

Mayfield, a freshman English major, said, “We just started talking about our ghost haunted house experiences and we were just like, we should do one.”

Baguisa, a freshman accounting major, said many people on campus have a conspiracy about the ghost and Pemberton as a building.

“So I think it kind of just adds to the mood,” Baguisa said.

While the Pemberton ghost story makes Pemberton a good venue for the annual haunted house, Bognanno said they will not have anything related to the ghost. 

“We decided to avoid that route, since it’s in the basement. There is nothing really related to the basement,” Bognanno said. 

RAs and other residents like Mayfield, Baguisa and Colucy will be in the basement to strike fear into those who attend. 

 “I’m hoping that people will actually be scared and not be like ‘that was lame’,” Mayfield said. 

Admission to get in is at least one canned good or a $2 cover charge and a liability form will be issued. 

 All the proceeds are being donated to the homeless shelter, Public Action to Deliver Shelter in Mattoon. 

The shelter philanthropy service provides food and shelter to those in the Mattoon area.  

 “We’re scaring you for a good cause,” Colucy said. “I’m really proud that our idea actually happened. Because even though I’m a freshman it still happened and that’s pretty cool.” 

Stacey Catterson can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].