By: Sloane Levine & Hayden Fishbein
As the month of October rolls around, the spirit of Halloween and the excitement for celebrating this holiday begins to creep into the halls of HSE. This Autumn holiday is celebrated all around the world; who wouldn’t want to participate in a day where you get to dress up in a costume and eat lots of candy and other sweets? For this 2019-2020 school year, Halloween happened to fall on a Thursday. While the weather was not ideal for people to go trick-or-treating around their neighborhoods outside, HSE hosted a safe and convenient alternative for many of our community members and their families.
Every year on October 31st, Half Hollow Hills High School East hosts their annual “Safe Halloween.” This event provides a much more comfortable environment for parents, while still being able to give their children a fun-filled Halloween experience. After school, at 2:00pm, students who are involved in specific clubs that sponsor rooms for the event take two hours to set up for the evening’s festivities. The students and faculty did an amazing job decorating classrooms with many unique themes. Just like many neighborhood houses would do for the Halloween season, the classrooms were transformed to fit the Halloween theme and attract the trick-or-treaters. At 4:00pm, children, siblings, and parents entered the school, excited to go around from class to class, playing games and trick-or-treating. It was so much fun to see everyone dressed in festive, colorful, and even spooky costumes. Some popular costumes this year were Pennywise from IT, Disney princesses, the murderous Chucky doll, favorite superheroes, and more! One special attraction, and an annual fan favorite, was the haunted house that was located on the lecture hall stage. The theme for the haunted house this year was a scary museum; it was filled with eerie decorations and replicas of famous art pieces that were twisted with a spooky feel, like the creepy Mona Lisa. For those who dared enter the haunted house, there was a big bowl of candy waiting at the end as a reward. This annual focal point of this beloved event is run by the National Art Honor Society, and they outdid themselves once again!
After experiencing our school’s Safe Halloween for another year, we are happy to say that the event was once again a huge success. We love seeing smiles on everyone’s faces, knowing that we had a part in making Halloween a very happy and festive day for so many. Overall, the night went very smoothly, and we want to give a special thank you to our Student Government for organizing this event and replenishing candy when needed. We also want to thank the students and faculty that helped out with the event. Whether it was to help with the set up, donate supplies, or volunteer at the actual event, Safe Halloween could never be the success it is without the support of our students and staff.
Photo courtesy of Allyson Uttendorfer and Lifetouch
