Students and community members joined in the Halloween spirit Oct. 24-25 to walk through the ASEWU-sponsored haunted house benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project.

The Wounded Warrior Project serves veterans and service members who incurred physical injury or mental illness during their military service on or after Sept. 11, 2001. Veterans and service members can receive help with combat and stress recovery, family support and peer mentoring.

Along with those services, the project helps with transitional training and placing individuals in the work place. From October 2011 to September 2012, 504 veterans were placed in employment and 83.2 percent of those employed stayed in that position for over a year, according to the Wounded Warrior Project website.

ASEWU sponsored this event in an effort to try to give back to EWU students. Markus Hammond, ASEWU Public Relations Specialist, explained that most students go elsewhere for holidays and do not necessarily seek on-campus activities because of a lack of events. Hammond said he hopes the first ASEWU-sponsored haunted house will start a new tradition.

D.J. Jigre, ASEWU President, explained that this project came from a request from Sigma Phi Epsilon for

supplemental budget to fund this project.

The project was initially approved, but the executive board realized that the project did not necessarily go through the correct channels and went against the bylaws. As a solution, ASEWU decided to take half of the $3,000 budget out of the executive fund and half came from a partnership with Student Activities, Involvement and Leadership.

“It is an opportunity for [ASEWU] to not only collaborate with a community organization, but also show student organizations that ASEWU is here for a reason,” said Jigre. “We are here to help the students out and, by all means, we can help you and get together to make it a fun opportunity. Student government is here to back you up.”

The house was open Oct. 24-25 from 7-11 p.m. with free admission. Those who attended were asked to donate as they saw fit and 100 percent of those proceeds were donated to the Wounded Warrior Project.

“It is our hope that this small contribution will show the local veterans that we really do appreciate their sacrifice,” said Hammond. “It is not possible to say ‘Thank you’ enough, but hopefully, this will be a step in the right direction.”