After the success of last year’s contest, the LRC challenges students to show talent and create horror tales in their annual Dare to Scare event for the chance to win a gift card.

“It is our fall writing contest and community event. The event offers a venue for our students to display their creative work and share their talents,” library media specialist Donna Leahy said.

Over 130 third graders will arrive from local elementary schools.

Dare to Scare Your Friends and Dare to Scare a third grader are the two competitions any student can enter.

“These are both short story contests not to exceed 500 words. The winning author of each contest will receive a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card,” Leahy said.

Deadline for the contests is Oct. 17. The winners will attend the event on Oct. 25.

Students can submit their stories to their English teacher or the LRC.

Division chair of the language arts department Mary Howard will judge the stories.

“We are expecting anywhere from 60 to 100 stories,” Leahy said.

A total of 126 students entered the contest last year.

Dare to Scare began six years ago as a way for students to share their scary stories.

“Nine years ago we didn’t have a Creative Writing Club nor a venue for students to display their stories. We wanted to encourage students to use our new library blog so I started Dare to Scare. At that time student authors submitted their Dare to Scare stories and I posted them to our blog,” Leahy said.

After wanting to improve the contest that started online, the community event was created.

“That same year (Superintendent Douglas) Domeracki arrived as our new superintendent. He wanted to strengthen the bond between the high school and the community.  We then decided to invite third graders from our feeder schools to join us for a magical morning,” Leahy said.