I The Behrend Beacon Interested in working for your college newspaper? Contact Rachel Reeves at: rcrsos7@psu.edu. The Behrend Beacon is currently offering paid positions for copy editors. Investigation: James turned to us and looked us each in the eye. "Now, I want you all to ask the spirits not to follow you home. - Not a one of us blinked. "They shouldn't leave here," he said. By that point, sitting in the dark a lit tle after midnight next to the haunted Gudgeonville Bridge, we had all given up the idea of sleeping that night. Only a week before Halloween, two reporters and I had decided to investigate the bridge with James, a paranormal investi gator. The bridge is known nationally for being one of the most haunted sites in Pennsylvania. Naturally, I was skeptical. As a jour nalist, I try to find the truth behind situ ations. Regardless of the fact that I was there for a story, I felt my own bias creeping in. I tried not to laugh as James explained how he attempts to communi cate with the spirits around him. "It's all about protocol." he says. "Some people don't follow the protocol, and you can't take any recordings they make as serious. If you take care not to whisper. or move, or take pictures on a foggy night, then the stuff you come away with is a lot more legit. You have to go in calmly, because if you get scared, your mind starts playing tricks on you. You hold your breath when you take a photo, take tour or five in a row so that it's credible if there's something in all of them.- He opened his equipment case and took several devices out. He gave a tem perature sensor to us, explaining that a drop in several degrees could prove the presence of a spirit. I probably rolled my eyes. He handed me a little box that looked like a remote control, explaining that it was an electromagnetic field sen sor. Useful in sensing electric fields in the air, paranormal investigators often cite readings from these devices as physical evidence of a paranormal pres ence. I was handed one of these. The reading sat at zero, and I hardly believed it was on. For the first hour and a half, 1 stared at the empty meter, wondering why I was believing in this. We stood there, in the freezing cold, as James told us chilling stories about the Gudgeonville bridge, including the death of a local girl, Darlene, on April 19th, 1964. The original clipping of the Students celebrate Behrend's 60th anniversary with Founder's Day continued from front page The Velcro wall had students suit up, five members of the group stepped on the Lion Ambassadors. Between the two run, and high jump on a large sticky sur- stage at 8 p.m. and played songs such as organizations, roughly $lO,OOO was face. The company also brought large "Any Way You Want It" and "Lights" by spent to commemorate the occasion. cushioned suits for sumo wrestling and a Journey. On Oct. 30, 1948, the Glenhill Farm long obstacle challenge course for stu- "It seems like every one had a good was dedicated as a Penn State facility. dents to race through. time and enjoyed it," said Brad Five years later, the campus began to In addition to the inflatables, over 600 Kovalcik, the Executive Director of the offer two-year associate degrees. The t-shirts and dre .04101.0111011111611117WntallgtOttritoiry over its them were talreft tlrerfa r lFl (1 - 71fir — 'srxfy years into the rapidly developing The day ended with the band Bon campus." school that it is today. By Connor Sattely managing editor cisso6oo)psu.edu girl's death was part of James's portfolio for the area, and also easily found online, with last names removed. The girl fell 225 feet to her death. The bridge's reputation was based partially upon this death, by those who think that the girl's spirit still lingers there. Other stories include some that James dis missed summarily, such as a headless horseman, a mule which was supposed ly killed on the bridge, and other even more ridiculous tales. James said that there was one way to figure out what was there for sure. Electronic voice phenomenons, or EVPs, are spirits whose voices are cap tured on audio recorders. A disembodied voice is one which you can hear without recording equipment. James mentioned nonchalantly that he had heard three of the latter. He warned us all not to whisper or move, then turned on the recording. We stood there in the silence, alone at the haunted bridge, for several moments. Feeling stupid, I waited as he started to play the recording back. What I heard gave me the first hint of doubt in my firm theory that "ghosts" don't exist. Listening closely to the recording, James pointed out several points where there were hints of a voice in the back ground. For most of those, we could hardly make it out. In the back of my mind, I dismissed it as background noise, until we came upon what James called a "Class A" recording, which was a clearly heard voice. It was at a point on the recording when our guide had told us to reach out our hands. Reluctantly, we all put our hands in front of us and stood there. Listening back, right after I remarked loudly to my friend that this was point less, we heard a chilling voice whisper "...touch your hand." We couldn't believe it. He played it again and again. We did our best to rationalize it, but we knew none of us were whispering. There were no other people around, and none of us had moved. I found myself finally believing that there could be spirits around us. Suddenly, the meter in my hand, dor mant for hours, went straight to red, its maximum reading. I nearly screamed, "Woah, woah, it's going crazy," with Journey, a cover band who played songs from both Bon Jovi and Journey. The CAMPUS NEWS Behrend to host blood drive Nov. 6 By Ryan Gallagher news editor rpgs(X)4@pstLedu Each semester, the Community Blood Bank of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Western Ohio makes its way to the Behrend campus to encourage the student body to donate blood for others in desperate need. This year the bank will settle in McGarvey Commons on Thursday, Nov. 6 and will invite students, faculty, and staff to partici pate in this vital event. Dr. Rod Troester, a professor of Communications at Behrend, requires one of his classes to help promote the event each semester. This year, he has selected his small group theory class to plan some advertising and promoting for the spec tacle. "It offers good experience in publicity and promotion for students," he said. " How you publicize an event is a great way to exploit your creativity." Troester actively partici pates by donating blood every time the bank is on campus. "It's just kind of a habit that formed a long time ago, - he says. Gudgeonville bridge some more colorful language interject ed. Immediately, James turned on the recording again, and we stood, eyes wide, as he asked the empty winter air who was present with us. He asked questions, and swore he heard responses on the recording; some of them were audible, others were not. Either way, we were thoroughly freaked out. "Go up on the bridge, - he said, look ing at me. "Go on. Just go up there." Standing with friends and a paranor mal expert was one thing, but walking alone in a pitch black, haunted bridge was another. I walked alone through the bridge to show my friends that I was still impervious to the Halloween thrills. I was terrified, but managed to walk across and back. "There, - .1 said. "Nothing The meter went to red and the temper ature immediately dropped ten degrees. "They probably like you," James said. I was fine with that It started to rain lightly, so we got in James's car and watched a handful of teenagers drive up, approach the bridge, and run away giggling. "Amateurs," I muttered. After sitting in the car for twenty min utes, we decided it was time to go. James turned to us and looked us each in the eye. "Now, I want you all to ask the spirits not to follow you home. - Not a one of us blinked. "They shouldn't leave The celebration was sponsored by both the Lion Entertainment Board and The Hamot Medical Center. Saint Vincent Health Center, Metro Health Center and Milicreek Community Hospital collectively founded what was then known as the Community Blood Bank of Erie County in November of 1965. Since then. it has expanded its area coverage to include Warren, McKean, and Elk County, as well as western New York. According to their website, "The Community Blood Bank exists as a nonprof it organization whose purpose is to provide a safe, adequate supply of voluntarily-donated blood for patients. We are licensed by the FDA and hold permits in the New York Department of Health and in the Pennsylvania Department of Health. We are accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks and Clinical Laboratory Improvement Acts and are a member of America's Blood Centers." Mark Woodel, a senior communication major, knows first-hand that these events are more than crucial. Last Febuary, he spent four days in the hospital after an ulcer caused him to lose a significant amount of blood, CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS ABOVE: The woods around the bridge at after dark DIRECTLY ABOVE: Highlighting where the girl, Darlene, fell from the cliff here, - he said Ten minutes later. after silently beg ging whatever set off the meters to leave me alone, I was driving home with my two friends, flinching at every sound in the woods, and thoroughly petrified. We tried to rationalize it. We argued, debated, and kept coming back to the inescapable fact that the sounds that we 41 40 41 40 41 41 41 40 40 41 41 11 41 40•41 41 4, 41 4, 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 a • 1 & 2 BEDROOM UNITS • • OMILICREEK MALL AREA.... 17 MIN. FROM BEHREND I • • • • • ••• • • • • ••• • • • • • • • • • • • fa GRANADA APARTMENTS BRING IN THIS COUPON AND RECEIVE 36 OFF ONE MONTH'S RENT! CALL TODAY FOR DETAILS 814-868-4681 GRANADA .HOMESANDLAND .COM Friday, October 31, 2008 requiring doctors to pump five bags of blood into him. "It definitely saved my life." Woodel was tremendously affected by this life-saving event and is disappointed he can't donate blood because of it. "I'm upset that I didn't do it in high school, but I'm still very grate ful of these events. I just wish I could help out more," says Woodel. Troester's class has been collaborating over the past two weeks, thinking of every possibility in order to push this event into the heads of Behrend students. Each student has been given a specific role in order to publi cize the event in any and every way. Troester feels that this is extremely benefi cial to the campus as a whole. just think that when people are more informed and reminded, then they're more likely to donate," he says. Woodel, who had his own life saved by blood donors, knows the value of the selfless "Think about if it was for your family and they needed you," he says. "You would do heard simply could not be explained away. Every few minutes, we would all just yell to relieve the tension we all still felt from one of the most deeply chilling experiences of our lives. Even weeks later, we try not to speak about it. The memory of the Gudgeonville bridge will always stay with us, and a return trip next Halloween is a certainty.
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