Crowther Memorial students host Halloween Fest

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Just in time for Halloween, the leadership students at Crowther Memorial Junior High hosted their Halloween Fest and turned their school into a house of horrors.

According to leadership student Noelle Giberson, those involved spent the last month brainstorming, planning and assembling their event, which they opened up to the local community.

“It took a while to set up, but basically in the theatre we have a haunted house, which is being run by two people. In the gym, we have a bunch of miscellaneous activities … and in the den we have face painting, a photo booth and coloring,” said Giberson.

Though Halloween events have been organized and hosted by students at the school before, this year’s festival was unique by having invited anyone from the community interested in attending the Halloween fest, to drop by after school.

Leadership teacher Lindsay Walker said she tends to let her students decide the kinds of projects they would like to work on and how they want to see them accomplished.

“They brainstormed a bunch of different ideas at first and looked at what would be possible, looked at things like budget, looked at things like timeline with Halloween being on a Sunday … and narrowed down their lists from there,” said Walker.

“They’re hoping that the event does act as a fundraiser, so all the admission costs, which is $2, will go towards future leadership projects and events that they are planning.”

Walker added she believes the project, for the most part, came together well and that the students learned a lot about organization and project management.

“I think they learned a lot about cooperation and working with a group of people that maybe they haven’t always worked with, or that have a common goal and that different people can bring different strengths to the event.

“It’s a big endeavor to take on and they’ve really approached it in stride and they’re excited about it. When kids are excited about something, then I think as a teacher, they’ve made your day,” said Walker.

Giberson explained for herself and her classmates, the project didn’t really experience any major hiccups along the way, but it was easy to overlook some of the related tasks that need tending to.

“First, we had to go to the admins and ask if we could actually do it and then we … had a bunch of ideas that we had going and we just dumped them all onto paper and picked a couple that we would be able to do,” said Giberson.

“It was pretty smooth sailing until it came to the end because we didn’t have anyone who knew it was actually happening. The last week, we ended up putting it on our Facebook and Instagram and stuff.”

The festival ran for one night only on Oct. 29.