Grades collaborated to create a new take on socially-distanced festivities.

By McKay Lucas ’21

Weeks before October 31st, many students all had the same realization: what was going to happen to the traditional CA Halloween festivities? Group chats became frantic, and anxious FaceTime conversations ensued. Unsurprisingly, teachers, students, and parents found a way to celebrate the holiday in a safe and socially-distanced manner.

In fact, some would say that this year’s festivities were even more spirited than in past years. Events began a week in advance of Halloween with the opportunity for grades to earn Spirit Cup points by dressing up in accordance with a different theme each day. With costumes ranging from TV characters to classic mummies, the Cary Academy halls were filled with many innovative characters.

Naturally, seniors took first place in the costume competition during spirit week. The freshmen were runners-up, and sophomores came in a close third with only nine students making the difference. On his grade’s diminutive spirit participation, junior Alex Lim says, “[w]e excelled during spirit week, featuring high-effort costumes like ‘high school student’, ‘sweatshirt-wearer’, and ‘boy’ to clinch a 4th place win.”

Spirit week was just the beginning of the Halloween fun. Perhaps the most famed spirit activity of the entire school year, Halloween Hall, would have to be remodeled to fit the COVID-era restrictions. In past years, crowds of students excitedly flooded the grade-level hallways to inspect other grades’ decorative abilities. This year, administrative figures decided that decorating and perusing would take place on the four porches surrounding the quad.

“The idea for Halloween Porches was an idea that stemmed from an organic discussion with all the Grade Level Leaders and Lead Advisors. We also reached out to students to garner ideas. Hosting Halloween Porches turned out to be the most feasible and safe option. Once again, the festival idea came from our biweekly meetings with the Grade Leaders. We reached out to the PTAA and Charger club to get some help, thus the pumpkins and mask decorating, candy guessing game and the Dusty Donut Food Truck! The event was a bigger success than what we anticipated. We are looking forward to expending on the event next year,” says Mrs. Jones.

With the location set, the next step was to prepare materials complimenting this year’s theme: the four seasons. For the second time in two weeks, group chats and advisories buzzed eagerly about what they could do to safely ensure victory. Dozens of students per grade volunteered in the early morning hours to help set up. Despite a few minor setbacks involving decapitated Santas and some unfortunate wind, students were pleased with their admirable final product. Porches were to be judged on categories including creativity, cleanup, environmental resourcefulness, and more.

While impartial faculty judges carefully scrutinized the porches, students took the time to relax and enjoy the fall festival on the quad. The highlight for many was the Dusty Donut food truck, which was free to all who signed up. This gathering was one of the first opportunities students have had to safely intermix with the other cohort.

Although underclassmen and juniors left after the fall festival, seniors continued catching up during the PTAA sponsored senior lunch. Students had a broad range of choices including Moe’s, Panera, and Sassool. “It was so great having a lot of the seniors all together in one spot again and it was such a good feeling seeing how happy everyone was to be with friends they hadn’t seen in a while. Plus, the delicious food definitely didn’t hurt,” says Kyle Murphy (’21).

After hours of anticipation, an email from Dean of Students Ms. Maret Jones was sent out to students. In a shocking turn of events, the sophomores had won not only the porch contest, but the overall total of points. “The sophomores didn’t have the best costume participation in the week leading up to Halloween Hall, but we brought our A-game that Wednesday. We took our given theme of Fall and turned it into two sub-themes of Barbequed and Deathsgiving, a spooky Fall Tailgate and bloody Thanksgiving. With our amazing setup turnout and collaborative teamwork, we managed to create the best Halloween Hall in the Upper School,” says Nitya Nalamothu (’23).

Juniors and seniors trailed in a close second place, and freshmen followed just fifteen points behind. Halloween set the stage for a competitive Spirit Cup race this year, regardless of limitations. Overall, a solid spooky season from the Upper School.