The Student Nursing Association (SNA) hosted their second annual Haunted Stevenson on October 22, 2023.
Hansen was transformed into a haunted house for the IWU students, staff and faculty to participate in. This is the second year the Student Nursing Association has hosted this event, “With last year being the first time that we ran this event, we wanted to start a bit small and we focused on getting the word out to mostly only nursing majors as a way to have fun around Halloween time,” said Olivia Shell, who is the President of SNA.
“This year, we decided to go big or go home. We used all three floors of Stevenson Hall compared to last year where we only used the lower level. In addition, we advertised the event campus-wide & also created a raffle.”
Across the three floors of Stevenson Hall, volunteer nursing students and faculty decorated and haunted the building for participants to be frightened on their journey through the nursing lab. “Although we decorate the nursing lab and make it scary, it also allows others to get a look into where nursing students learn.”
The admission was at least one canned food item, all of which will be donated to a local community shelter in order to reach the wider Bloomington-Normal population in need.
“Rather than raise money through Haunted Stevenson, we decided that bringing a canned good item would
be a great way to save costs for those coming while promoting community service act at the same time,” Shell said. The donations from the previous year went to the Salvation Army in Peoria, one of the clinical sites for nursing students.
SNA also hosts other outreach events throughout the year, including the Feminine Hygiene Drive for free hygiene products to be placed in public restrooms around campus and local clinics. “The goal of SNA is to enhance the relationships between nursing students with not only their peers & professors but also within their community. Through our service events, nursing students volunteer for events that allow them to have a variety of different experiences,” Shell said.
“Through events like these, it is our hope that SNA can continue to promote community outreach and encourage others to be a part of experiences like this too.”