Gearing Up For Halloween At WestConn

DANBURY — The historical ghosts of Danbury have something to share, and Western Connecticut State University Professor of Education Dr Darla Shaw wants to make sure their stories are told. So she has organized a late October Ghost Tour on the university’s midtown campus.

Dr Shaw, along with WestConn alumna Samantha Kulish (now an elementary school teacher in Norwalk) and Ms Kulish’s brother Vincent, a media major at WestConn, will present hour-long Ghost Tours at 5:30, 7, and 8:30 pm on Friday and Saturday, October 27–28. The performers will tell ghost stories while informing attendees about Danbury’s history through the dying art of folklore — just in time for Halloween. The tours will be free and the public is invited.

The Ghost Tour will begin outside Fairfield Hall, on WestConn’s midtown campus at 181 White Street, where Dr Shaw and the Kulishes will talk about the dormitory’s resident ghost, Mirror Mary.

They later will move across campus to a replica of the Joshua tree, a tree that bordered on the Danbury-New York state line, and where supposed supernatural beings have been spotted. Next they will move to the Berkshire Theatre in Berkshire Hall to talk about its ghost, Daphne.

They will conclude the tour with a slide show about the ghosts of the South Street School cafeteria, the old hat factories of Danbury and Tarrywile Park. The slide shows can be viewed in Warner Hall during the Friday tour and White Hall during the Saturday tour, both on WestConn’s midtown campus.

If the weather is not favorable, the slide shows will take the place of the ghost tours at the aforementioned times and locations.

Geared toward upper-elementary and middle school children, this two-day event will feature theatrical reenactments with costumed actors who will bring the ghost narratives to life with the help of sound effects and props.

For more information, call Dr Shaw at 837-8412, or the WestConn Office of University Relations at 837-8486.