Subway Surfers, Spice Girls, and Duolingo’s owl mascot haunted the halls of CHS, marking day 2 of Fall Spirit Week on Tuesday, Oct. 31. Communications High School’s (CHS) Halloween parade is an annual staple.
This parade, and spirit week, is loved by many students of CHS, such as Junior council member Ishika Pondicherry of Marlboro.
“I love spirit week because of how competitive it is and I love all of the events, themes, and the dressing up,” Pondicherry said. “Halloween is one of my favorite holidays anyways, so it is like having Halloween for an entire week.”
CHS encourages students to wear a costume to gain theme points for their grade, and enter in the annual Halloween parade to get additional event points for the day. For some, this may be seen as stressful, while others find excitement in the event. Sofie Grodman, freshman president of Sea Bright, finds that she and her peers love the competition.
“It was super high energy, people were very excited if their grade got a point,” Grodman said.
The parade has various different categories such as Best Group, Most Original, Scariest and many more. This year, there was a new category added: Best Mr. Gleason.
This new element forced students to think as creatively as possible. The sophomore class displayed various versions of the principal throughout his life. These included College Gleason, Covid Gleason and Everyday Gleason. The Junior class had Pledge of Allegiance Gleason, which featured junior Cameron Mock of Hazlet reciting the Pledge of Allegiance through a megaphone. Finally, the seniors performed a Mr. Gleason skit, showing James Matthews as the principal in his normal state and Logan Clarke with a picture of young Mr. Gleason taped to his chest.
After a very enthusiastic reaction from the audience and various entries, the judges discussed and then decided on the best costume for each category.
Mock won Best Mr. Gleason and senior Julia Grau of Millstone Township won Most Original with the entry “Jellyfish.” The seniors won Best Group, with a live reenactment of the video game Mario Kart. Juniors Lily Costa of Red Bank and Sarah Li of Morganville won Best Couple/Pair with a live reenactment of the video game Subway Surfers. Junior Kirsten Kochel of Hazlet won scariest with a horrifying zombie costume. Freshmen Avery Garr and Arlynn Buchan of Matawan won funniest with the entry Audrey Hepburn and “What She Ate For Lunch.” Lastly, sophomore Zach Pressler of Roosevelt won most effort dressed as Duolingo’s mascot, Duo the Owl.
As the participation rose, so did the competition. Although there are only three days left of spirit week, that does not mean the contest can’t change. Juniors are currently in first place with 82 points, followed by the seniors with 67 points, sophomores with 52 points, and freshmen with 35 points.
Halloween 2023 was a success, with not only an amazing Halloween parade but amazing costumes altogether. Sophomore Vice President Isabella San Filippo of Wall shared her love for this memorable day.
“I thought that all of the costumes were fantastic! Everyone puts in so much effort, and it really shows,” San Filippo said. “It’s nice to be a part of a community full of people that genuinely care and support each other.”
