Women's basketball joins NightMARE Island staff to scare (and support) local communities

Editor's Note: In addition to supporting local organizations through revenue collected from event admission, NightMARE Island staff encourages visitors to donate non-perishable food items and/or gently used Halloween costumes for local children.

When a unique Halloween-related opportunity presented itself to the Cal Maritime women's basketball program, the answer was an easy one.

"Since NightMARE Island staff donate admission collected throughout the month to various community-related organizations, we felt this was a great opportunity to support a group that supports non-profits throughout the region. Yes, it was a fun event, but we did not want to help a group of people who were solely interested in making money," said sophomore guard MacKenzie Finck.

Now located in a new 45,000-square-foot warehouse in the Historic Core, NightMARE Island is a haunted house open to the public each weekend throughout the month of October. As volunteers for a night, women's basketball cadet-athletes joined Island staff to help families and locals enjoy a (fright) night out in this Halloween-themed experience.

"We arrived to the waterfront at 4 p.m., took part in a training session to learn what everyone was allowed to do while inside the haunted house, walked through the building to learn where all the emergency exits were located, then took our positions for the 5-6 p.m. no scare hour," explained Finck.

During that hour, there are no scare actors inside the haunted house, no actors roaming around the property, and all live animatronics are turned off to help younger visitors enjoy NightMARE Island without the fear of being scared.

Once 6 p.m. rolled around, this group of Keelhaulers, NightMARE Island staff and other volunteers were prepped and ready to perform.

"After we completed training, we entered a large back room filled with costumes; all we needed to do was arrive wearing black clothing and choose our costume for the night. There were two makeup artists on site to enhance our look for the night. I was a hospital patient and wore a gown with blood all over it," said Finck.

"Following the no scare hour, we were inside the warehouse for approximately four hours, but took frequent breaks throughout the night. Everyone enjoyed this event because we helped other people have fun while walking through the haunted house." Finck added, " we had a blast because we were able to hang out with one another, not worry about homework or anything related to basketball."

For families that arrived after the no scare hour, Finck and her teammates made sure to turn their backs towards younger participants to not scare or frighten them. If anyone looked scared, interactions were toned down dramatically.

However, there was one group of visitors every women's basketball cadet-athlete looked forward to interacting with.

"My highlight of the night took place when Coach Bennett returned and walked through the house. We were all spaced out and had a special knock for each other once coach arrived. Dominique White was the first to scare coach when she opened the door to a coffin a jumped out of it. It was fun to see a different side to coach whenever we scared her," explained Finck.

As one of six cadets who are community engagement officers, a new university-created position to help young men and women find, and participate in local community service events, women's basketball's participation at NightMARE Island was an extension of this position.

Said Finck, "I am meeting with various coaches and teams to help them join various non-profit organizations — more than 40 have been vetted by the university — and give back to the community. I recently spoke with Coach Doten and members of the men's water polo team; they will participate with a group called Faith Food Fridays next month. I am collaborating with every team to see what days, and times of the year, work best for their schedules."

In addition to helping local organizations, participating in community service projects and events provide additional benefits to everyone involved, as women's basketball cadet-athletes experienced firsthand.

"We left a little after 10:30 p.m. and talked about some of the people we scared, including coach, and what took place around our area since the team did not have a chance to walk through the warehouse from start to finish and see everything. It took us a while to calm down because we were laughing at everything that took place throughout the night. Everyone had a lot of fun.

"These community service events are a great way to spend time with your friends, who are also your teammates, do something outside of your sport and feel good about giving back to local communities."