09/30/2026
# # Why Do We Lean Toward Spooky — But Fun?
From the beginning, **Fright Noise was never intended to feel like a traditional su***de-prevention event.**
The subject we're addressing is serious. Su***de is serious. Grief is serious. Losing someone you love changes your life forever.
But that doesn't mean everything we do in their memory has to be sad.
In fact, **Fright Noise deliberately leans the other direction.**
We embrace Halloween. Skeletons. Ghosts. Edgar Allan Poe. Black cats. Ravens. Bad jokes. Ridiculous costumes. Strange characters. Music. Decorations. And a completely absurd 0.5K that almost anybody can finish.
It's **spooky—but it's supposed to be fun.**
There is a reason for that.
# # # It Starts With Dwight
Fright Noise exists because of **Dwight**.
Dwight loved Halloween, and Fright Noise was the name he used for his Halloween DJ act. So embracing the spooky side of Halloween isn't something we added simply because Halloween is popular.
**It's part of his story.**
When we put up the skeletons, play the music and make the event a little weird, we're remembering something Dwight enjoyed.
We're not remembering only how Dwight died.
**We're remembering how he lived.**
That's an important distinction.
# # # Grief Doesn't Mean You Stop Laughing
After losing someone to su***de, it can sometimes feel strange to laugh again.
But remembering someone doesn't always have to involve tears.
Sometimes remembrance sounds like:
*"You remember when he did that?"*
And suddenly everybody is laughing.
Those moments matter.
Fright Noise gives us permission to experience both things at once. We can miss somebody terribly and still laugh. We can talk about su***de and then tell a ridiculous story. We can shed a tear and five minutes later laugh at somebody dressed like a six-foot taco running a 0.5K.
**Joy doesn't disrespect grief.**
Sometimes joy is how we carry it.
# # # Spooky Gives Us a Doorway Into a Difficult Conversation
There is another reason we use Halloween and spooky imagery.
**It gets people's attention.**
A poster covered with clinical language about su***de prevention may be incredibly important, but many people will walk right past it.
Put a skeleton pushing up daisies on the same poster?
Someone might stop.
Put Edgar Allan Poe, a raven, a black cat and a terrible Halloween pun on it?
Now we've started a conversation.
And once we've started the conversation, we can talk about what really matters:
**Mental health. Su***de prevention. Checking on each other. Remembering those we've lost. And reminding people that they matter.**
The spooky stuff opens the door.
**The mission walks through it.**
# # # There's Also a Little Bit of Rebellion in Fright Noise
We borrowed the basic 0.5K concept from those wonderfully crazy people in **Boerne, Texas**, and we've never pretended otherwise.
The whole concept pokes fun at the seriousness surrounding traditional races.
Fright Noise carries some of that same attitude into su***de-prevention fundraising.
We're willing to be a little unconventional.
We're willing to be weird.
We're willing to laugh.
We're willing to make some noise.
Because sometimes breaking stigma requires breaking expectations.
# # # Spooky, Not Hopeless
There is an important line we try not to cross.
**Fright Noise can be dark without being hopeless.**
Our skeletons can be funny. Our ghosts can be mischievous. Poe can be creepy. The cemetery can be foggy. The raven can sit ominously in the corner.
But underneath everything there should still be **life, community and hope**.
We aren't celebrating death.
**We're celebrating the people we remember.**
And we're fighting like hell for the people who are still here.
That's why Fright Noise can have skeletons, ghosts, ravens, costumes and Halloween craziness while still carrying the message:
**You Matter.**
# # # That's Fright Noise
Maybe that's the best way to explain our philosophy:
**We use the spooky to get your attention.
We use the fun to bring people together.
We use laughter to make difficult conversations a little easier.
And we use the opportunity to remind people why we're really there.**
We're there for Dwight.
We're there for every name somebody carries with them to Fright Noise.
We're there for the person who might be struggling silently in the crowd.
And we're there because sometimes the best way to fight **Silent Noise**...
is to make a little **Fright Noise**.
**Say their names.
Tell their stories.
Break the silence.
You Matter.**
