Pumpkin carving, haunted hallways, trick or treating. Seniors at Darnell Cookman had a busy Halloween! The class of 2024 knows what they are doing, and nothing will slow them down.
Every year, the seniors look forward to taking a day shortly before Halloween to have a pumpkin carving contest, and this year, it fell on Wednesday, October 25. The class of 2024 has only 46 students, so it was much easier to put together than in previous years. They chose their teams and then worked hard to gut, cut, and carve their pumpkins in hopes of winning.
The results included a tie for first place, so no third-place winner was announced. First place was awarded to Ulysses Artiste, Jonathan Cepeda, and Erlanda Cherizar. Ulysses worked on his pumpkin alone, carving a version of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, but Jonathan and Erlanda worked together, creating a character and using foil to enhance the details. It was straight out of a horror movie! Both pumpkins took incredible creativity and hard work. Second place went to Sulame Berhe and Terrianna Wright, who carved and painted their pumpkin to look like Kirby. All of the students did very well, and best of all they had tons of fun.
Next on the list of Halloween fun was Haunted Hallways. This is an annual event, open to all Darnell students, put together by Darnell’s National Honor Society with help from volunteers from other in-school organizations. This year’s theme was “Carn-evil” of Nightmares, so the sections of the Hallway included a Hall of Mirrors, Jack-in-the-boxes, and a few others. The members decided to include students of various ages as scare actors in order to pull the theme together. The smoke machines weren’t working, so NHS members were stressed trying to improvise and make sure the “carn-evil” was still as spooky as always. Apart from the hallway is the Haunted Hallways dance. Of course, there was candy and music, but the “carnival workers” also had popcorn, contests, and cornhole to keep students occupied. The only annual event that was missed was the costume contest. The middle and high school dances were combined, so the hallway was open longer, taking away the time typically designated to the costume contest. Despite all of the stressful changes, NHS pulled off another successful Haunted Hallways.
The last seniors-only Halloween event was trick or treating. As you would expect, it took place on October 31st, but unlike other activities, there was not a whole day carved out for trick or treating, so seniors didn’t have to participate if they didn’t want to. They were given a list of participating teachers and room numbers that they were able to trick or treat at during free or passing periods. They were able to dress up in costume, as long as it followed the school dress code, so it was easy to pick them out from the other students. By the end of the day, many of the seniors had bags full of treats to bring home and enjoy.
Halloween is a fun time for all, but even more so for Darnell’s graduating class. It can be a stressful year, so teachers try to do whatever possible to keep up the fun and motivation before graduation. The month of October can be busy, but it’s also the perfect time to host spooky activities and make tons of memories.
