By Sofia Montoya-Deck \/\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Halloween creeps nearer, students have taken time to learn about the many ghosts that call Hood College home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Thursday, Oct. 24, the library hosted \u201cHauntings at Hood,\u201d where attendees could learn about Hood\u2019s resident ghosts and other historical stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome of our resident ghost stories vary with the telling, but they are consistent with the main points,\u201d Hood\u2019s archivist Mary Atwell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of these many fabled tables include Brodbeck’s haunted history as a beer garden, dorm elevators moving without reason and numerous alleged deaths of past students who still haunt their place of passing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs the college archivist, I regularly get questions about Hood ghosts in October, so I thought it would be fun to put together an event where I can introduce students to our campus ghost legends,\u201d Atwell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The event included an appearance from local paranormalist and spiritualist Rhonda Russo. Russo spoke about how she became a paranormalist and shared some of her personal experiences around Frederick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was born a seer with an intense sense of intuition, as was my mother and her mother,\u201d Russo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She shared that when it came to dating as a teenager and young adult, she attempted to calm down her abilities in order to lead a \u201cnormal life.\u201d After marrying for a second time, however, her abilities awakened. \u201cI was overloaded and even scared due to the fact that spirits [and] ghosts were actually coming to me while I was sleeping at night,\u201d she said. \u201cThrough the fear, I decided to educate myself on all paranormal things, and with that, I became stronger and fearless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russo told the story of a ghost encounter she had in Gettysburg: \u201cIt was in February at 10:30 p.m. I was jokingly thinking to myself that \u2018Gettysburg really was a ghost town due to no one being seen in the streets and all the stores were closed.\u2019 I got up near the cemetery when I saw a Union soldier walking down the street holding a rifle. He was tall and thin. I slowed down and began to roll down my passenger window as I was going to acknowledge him being the only other person in Gettysburg other than me when he just vanished before my eyes. He walked about 15 feet and just vanished.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Civil War soldiers haunt more than just the battlegrounds of Gettysburg. \u201cFrederick’s rich past has created many stories of hauntings over the centuries, especially because of its role right after the Civil War’s Battle of Antietam,\u201d Atwell explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the 1862 battle, numerous Frederick buildings were turned into hospitals to treat thousands of dying and wounded soldiers. One of these buildings, Winchester Hall, was home to the Frederick Female Seminary, which was later sold to create the Woman\u2019s College of Frederick before it became Hood College. The seminary school eventually reopened after the temporary hospitals disbanded, but for many years onward, students reported strange noises and spirits inhabiting the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Atwell\u2019s personal favorite Hood ghost story is that of Steve of Shriner Hall. Steve was reportedly a U.S. Naval Academy midshipman visiting his girlfriend in Shriner when he found her with another man and a bloody fight ensued. The altercation resulted in Steve\u2019s death, and he has been haunting Shriner\u2019s fourth floor ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat makes this story fun is that he seems to get along with students,\u201d Atwell said of Steve. \u201cHe is a friendly spirit who will pipe down when asked while people are studying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later in the event, Russo shared her favorite pieces of ghost-hunting equipment, which included dowsing rods and a voice recorder. Dowsing rods are used to detect unseen energies and external forces while voice recorders can pick up on EVP (electronic voice phenomena).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For those interested in learning more about paranormal activity and ghosts, Russo teaches classes at Frederick Community College and holds free lectures at various locations. She also has a podcast (Lifting the Veil with Terri and Rhonda) and a YouTube channel (Rhonda Russo Spiritualist and Paranormalist).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russo offers paranormal investigation free of charge and can use her psychic abilities for many causes, such as locating missing pets or working on cold cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGet books on the subject and read,\u201d Russo suggested to those interested in paranormal activity. \u201cBut please don’t go jumping into it without first educating yourself on how to do it properly and more importantly, how to protect yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"