At Aragon’s first ever Halloween Carnival, taking place on Oct. 30 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Leadership students, who hosted the carnival, encouraged students to celebrate the holiday by dressing up and enjoying a haunted house and a variety of booths and games run by Aragon clubs.
School clubs and a food truck provided a diverse range of foods, desserts and drinks ranging from cupcakes, popcorn and donuts to milk tea, lemonade and butterbeer.
Also, volunteers from the senior class transformed the student lunch room into a haunted house. Inside, black curtains hung down from the ceiling, and students masked as monsters jumped out in attempts to scare students.
In addition, at 7 p.m., when the haunted house and the club booths closed, the 1960 classic horror film, “Psycho,” played on an inflatable screen. Leadership encouraged attendees to bring blankets and pillows.
For senior Savanna Cyr, the creator and head organizer of the event, the carnival was a long-held idea that Leadership helped turn into reality. “The idea of a Halloween carnival popped into my head during my freshman year,” said Cyr. “Throughout my years, I was still trying to plan out the kinks of how exactly we could do this. But towards the end of my junior year, I went to Mr. Mahood and told him about the idea, and basically right then and there, it just skyrocketed.”
With the Halloween Carnival, Cyr hoped to bring the Aragon community together. She says, “I wanted to do something new and exciting, especially around Halloween, because this is a wonderful time to get dressed up and have some fun together. And we do not have a welcome back dance this year, so I think the Halloween Carnival makes up for that.”
To encourage everyone to come to the carnival, admission was free and not limited to Aragon students, so families and friends from other schools attended as well. Senior Jessica Sushansky says, “I currently go to Middle College this year, but I love supporting Aragon. Coming here and seeing all my friends and past teachers from Aragon makes me feel like a part of the Aragon community again.”
The carnival also gave clubs an opportunity to raise money by selling desserts, beverages, or creating games and booths of their choice. Because there are only two food fairs this year, the carnival was also intended to make up for the loss in fundraising opportunities. Sophomore Geth Wu, the vice president of KADA-Filipino club, says, “We were able to raise money from fundraising at the carnival, but I still prefer food fairs over the carnival because the food fair allowed the entire student body to participate, and provided club officers with more options on what to sell to raise the most amount of money possible. The carnival limits us because we can only sell desserts and drinks.”
However, many clubs prefer the carnival because it gave them the freedom of incorporating new methods of fundraising such as games. Senior Zaneta Lai, a member of the Asian Pop Club, says, “We made a marble game in which people have to pick up all the marbles with chopsticks and bring them from one container to another. In Asia, this game is popular in festivals. With this Halloween Carnival, we wanted to bring some part of asian culture into american culture.”
History teacher Ron Berggren, the advisor for the sophomore student council, adds, “The whole point of this carnival may not be just to make money. I think the best part of this carnival is that clubs get to experience something new and make memories together. It is events like these that students will remember and treasure most after leaving high school.”
Cyr agrees, adding, “I really hope that this does become a tradition here at Aragon and that I can pass it on to the underclassmen and Ms. Perino, who will hopefully continue it on for years to come. I think that this Halloween Carnival really makes Aragon special because it embraces the unique spirit of Aragon that helps us build a stronger community.”
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