Chippewa Hills High School Student Council’s annual Family Halloween Night was a tremendous success! Over 1,600 people attended this family-friendly event on October 29, inviting children to come trick-or-treating through the haunted hallways of Chippewa Hills High School.
Family Halloween Night has been a long-standing tradition at Chippewa Hills and in 2022 the High School Student Council took on the role of coordinating the whole production. “Organizing an event of this size was a huge effort,” says Student Council President Easton Williams. “Last year was our first year doing it and we had over 1,200 people come through. We knew this year would be bigger as more people heard about it, so we wanted to make sure we went all out to make it a fun experience for the kids.” Student Council oversaw all aspects of the event, including the decoration of the entire high school, creating a horrifying Haunted House Walk, recruiting and organizing volunteers, and coordinating a massive candy-donation campaign in order to have enough candy for the high volume of trick-or-treaters expected.
“Decorating the whole school took about two weeks,” said Easton. The entire high school student body helped transform the building into a Halloween haven with homeroom PRIDE groups each responsible for creating a haunting display in their section of the hallways. Students showcased their creativity by using only hand-made and donated décor. Displays included a haunted campsite complete with potted trees, a skeleton pirate ship, creepy spiders and ghouls crawling out from every corner, and even Scooby Doo and the Mystery Machine! Every hallway of the school was thoroughly decorated, and trick-or-treaters were thrilled with the impressive displays.
Senior Brooke Kalahar was responsible for organizing the Haunted House Walk, a terrifying feature designed for guests who were seeking more of a thrill. “We were trying to make it as scary as possible and tap into people’s fears,” said Brooke. “It was extremely popular with older children and the line to enter was so long we didn’t shut down until after 6:30, even though we were supposed to close at 6:00.”
To ensure the event ran smoothly, Student Council recruited over 90 student volunteers to work in various capacities throughout the evening. Students helped with welcoming trick-or-treaters into the building, passing out candy throughout the hallways, and working in the Haunted House Walk. The High School Drama Club coordinated fun Halloween-themed children’s games and activities in the cafeteria for the entire evening. “With such a large crowd expected, we needed a lot of people to help keep things moving all night,” explained Easton. “We had a lot of volunteers from the high school and middle school Student Councils and National Honor Societies, FFA, sports teams, class officers, and lots of other student groups. We had a really great volunteer turn out.”
In order to have enough candy to pass out to trick-or-treaters, Student Council organized an enormous District-wide candy drive. “Every building in the district held a candy drive to support Family Halloween Night,” said Easton. “They all put their own unique spin on it and had fun competitions to see who could collect the most candy.” The Chippewa Hills community did not disappoint and donated a whopping 1,800 pounds of candy! “The trick-or-treaters had a blast and got a LOT of candy,” laughed Easton. “We’re super thankful for everyone’s generosity for the candy drive. It was great to see the whole District participate.”
“Overall, the whole thing was a huge success,” said Brooke. “It was so cool to see the entire high school come together to help decorate. Everyone was involved and were respectful of the decorations. Then to see it all come together with all the volunteers and the huge turnout from the community. It was awesome!”
Family Halloween Night has become a beloved tradition for the Chippewa Hills community and Student Council has plans to make it even bigger for 2024!