SEMINOLE \u2014 Families seeking Halloween fun can stroll through the Haunted Graveyard when it returns 7-9 p.m. Saturday Oct. 25, in front of Studio Movie Grill at Seminole City Center, 11201 Park Blvd. N.<\/p>\n
Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Seminole Lake, the event transforms part of the mall into a spooky graveyard with interactive props, animated figures, costumed volunteers and candy stations staffed by local businesses.<\/p>\n
The main attraction is a costume contest offering $1,000 in prizes and trophies across five categories and multiple age groups. Admission is $5, with all proceeds benefiting foster children in Pinellas County.<\/p>\n
This year features a new collaboration with students from Richard O. Jacobson Technical High School, who have applied their construction, electrical and design skills to enhance the attraction\u2019s displays.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people in the Rotary Club are not builders,\u201d said Gerry Cachia, a Rotary Club of Seminole Lake member. \u201cI thought it would be great to get Tech High involved in helping us make things a little better than what we\u2019ve been doing. So, I got with Josh and his folks over there, and they\u2019re helping us rebuild the entrance ways and shore up a lot of the things that we needed help with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joshua Wolfenden, principal of Jacobson Technical High School, said many students were already familiar with the event and were excited to participate. He called it a perfect opportunity for hands-on experience and community engagement.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor our kids to have a chance to give back to our community and see the fruits of their labor in real time in a real event, there\u2019s nothing that can replace that,\u201d Wolfenden said. \u201cIt\u2019s awesome for them to just have a sense of pride that they\u2019ve built something that is going to be used in a real-world situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The school offers seven career-vocational programs. Students graduate with a high school diploma and industry certifications. Programs involved in the Haunted Graveyard include construction, electrical, and commercial arts.<\/p>\n
Students built cobblestone-style columns, large entrance gates, and other detailed structures using Styrofoam and lightweight materials. Commercial art students added airbrushing techniques to create realistic stone affects.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re creating these two large entrance gates that people will walk through,\u201d Wolfenden said. \u201cThey\u2019ve created a number of different little stanchions that will go around the displays that are there. They look very realistic, spooky, like you would see at Disney. So, it\u2019s really cool and they\u2019re doing a great job with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project challenged students to design realistic structures that were both sturdy and lightweight. The displays needed to be easy to transport, assemble, and store but durable enough to withstand wind, crowds and excited children.<\/p>\n
Wolfenden said he hopes people recognize how the project has helped students build transferable skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working hard to equip our students with the skills to be successful, and that can translate into a lot of different media,\u201d Wolfenden said. \u201cIt could be designing some of the displays for this event, but also the skills that they\u2019re learning through that experience can translate into other areas as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cachia said the Rotary Club values community involvement. The Osceola High School Interact Club also assists with the event, which requires two days to setup for the two-hour attraction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think it\u2019s incredible that we can join forces with the local schools to get them involved in these projects, because that\u2019s what everybody should be doing,\u201d Cachia said. \u201cSeminole is a small, tight-knit community. So, when we can get Tech High and different kids involved in what we\u2019re doing, it just makes our effort that much better I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information about the event, visit the Seminole City Center website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEMINOLE \u2014 Families seeking Halloween fun can stroll through the Haunted Graveyard when it returns 7-9 p.m. Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[8091,8093,8092,8090,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-7628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-haunted-graveyard","tag-richard-o-jacobson-technical-high-school","tag-rotary-club-of-seminole","tag-seminole-city-center","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}