The exciting events that occurred on October 31 took weeks of planning in hopes of providing BC with an unforgettable Halloween.  The day was full of games, contests, spooky songs, and yes, candy.  But before all of the festivities, students must make it to school. The hardest part of the day is the morning commute to school while dressed in costume…Or at least it was for me; I was dressed as Danny from “Grease.”  The commute was doubtlessly filled with odd looks from strangers on the train or street.  These looks always confuse me because, after all, it is Halloween.  I found myself asking, “Did these skeptics forget about the Halloween tradition of dressing up?”  If so, I did not let them ruin my Halloween spirit!  A student’s commute can be a pleasant start to Halloween, especially if he or she is lucky enough to see a grown man in a spiderman suit toting a briefcase.

Upon entering school, students are greeted by the king of the lobby at the security desk, who is dressed in his customary suit with a gold and red crown atop his head.  Although students outside the school might have stood out, inside they become part of the Halloween mosaic that displays everyone’s fantastic costume.  Students then stroll into morning meeting where they are pleasantly surprised to see all the exotic costumes their friends and teachers are wearing.  Group costumes like Eggs and Bacon, the Reservoir Dogs, and the clan from “Orange is the New Black” are especially funny.  Next, the students all head to class.

Although classes did persist, there was a cheerfulness in the air that many students didn’t find every day.  Even if a teacher gave a test, there was just something slightly less ominous than usual about taking a test surrounded by an inmate, a guy wrapped up in robes, and Tasty Jefferson.

Halfway through the day, the entire Upper School gathered in the cafeteria for some Halloween games like the Candy Corn Toss, the Mummy Wrap, and the Donut Eat.  In each game, representatives from each of the grades competed to prove their grades’ dominance.  After the games, there were costume contests for the Best Teacher Costume, Spookiest Costume, Best Group Costume, Most Original Costume, most Authentic Costume, and the ultimate award: Best Overall Costume. The contests were judged by a panel of teachers and results were announced during the Pep Rally at the end of the day. In the ensuing time between the contest and the Pep Rally, everyone was left in suspense to see who would win.  Would it be Mr. Smith dressed up as Luke Oldham or Ms. Chow dressed up as a duck?  Would it be Drew Keenan as Indiana Jones or Darrell Pona as a sumo wrestler?

The Pep Rally finally arrived and kicked off with a performance of “Thriller” by the chorus, featuring a solo by Nate Oppenheimer, who was fittingly dressed as a mad scientist.  Shortly after, all the fall athletes were recognized for their participation in BC sports. The seniors were given Berkeley Carroll t-shirts as a special thanks for assuming leadership roles on their teams (a list of these seniors is provided below). Finally the time came to announce winners of the costume contest.  In the teacher category, Mr. Chu and his dog Scarlette both dressed as girl scouts beat out Mr. Smith and Ms. Chow for the top prize.  The spookiest costume award went to freshman, Tyler Samuels, who went as a zombie. The best group costume award went to a group of freshmen girls who were dressed up as the characters from “Orange is the New Black.”  For the most original costume, the award went to yet another freshman, James Pierce as 50 shades of grey.  The award for the most authentic costume went to four sophomore boys: Luis Peromarta, Ezekiel Concepcion, Xabier McAuley, and Alessandro Getzel, who all went as the Reservoir Dogs.  And finally, the grand prize for best costume went to another freshman, Patrick Gamble, as Aang from Avatar the Last Airbender. I guess the freshmen class had the best costumes this year!

Overall it was a great day at The Berkeley Carroll School.Halloween spirits were high and the holiday fortunately landed on a Friday,creating a perfect segway to a great weekend. I hope BC had a fantastic Halloween! And congratulations to the winners, you all did great!

Varsity Boys Soccer:

Felix Pilkington, Peter Russo, Kamyar Sadeghi, Zac Pepere

Varsity Girls Soccer:

Julia Pike, Esme Chant, Morgan Judge-Tyson, Sabrina Quintanilla, Olivia Guarna

Cross Country:

Sunny Birdi, Samantha Schreiber, Emma Bessire, Myles Zavelo, Jacob Friedman

Varsity Girls Volleyball:

Nicole Meza, Alexandra Pachter, Laura Gilbert, DeAndra Forde