To celebrate Halloween, the Student Executive Council hosted their annual Trick o鈥� Treating event on Oct. 30 at lunch. The next day, Japanese teacher Matt Hall held his 鈥淗all鈥�-oween Costume Contest during lunch on the quad.
The trick-or-treating event, which was held in 24 classrooms across campus, consisted of teachers鈥� waiting at the door and asking visiting students a variety of riddles. Participants received one piece of candy for attempting to answer the riddle and an additional two pieces for providing the correct response.
Math teacher Rachel Congress was among the teachers offering candy.
鈥淓veryone seems really excited about it,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 nice seeing students who I haven鈥檛 seen since last year come by.鈥�
Congress fostered collaboration among participants who unsuccessfully answered her riddles.
鈥淚f a group didn鈥檛 get it, then I would usually not tell them the answer,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 would let the next person in line try to answer it. So that made it more fun, because they could help each other.鈥�
Hall鈥檚 halloween costume contest featured four categories of competitors: solo student costumes, group student costumes, solo staff costumes and group staff costumes. The first-place winner from each category received a $50 prize.
Hall was extremely pleased with the turnout and high quality of costumes, which made judging difficult.
鈥淭he group costumes really impressed me this year more than previous years, and some of the solo ones were really good,鈥� he said. 鈥淧art of me starts thinking maybe I should do second and third because there鈥檚 definitely some second and third places, and we were having trouble choosing between the teacher groups. Certainly there could have been a couple of ties.鈥�
Although Hall鈥檚 costume contest is a Gunn-exclusive event, it has its roots across town.
鈥淲e started it in 2013-ish at Paly,鈥� Hall said. 鈥淲e did it for about five or six years there. When I moved over here to take over the Japanese program in 2020, we couldn鈥檛 do it that first year, since we were all on Zoom. But then the minute we got back on campus, I was like, let鈥檚 do it.鈥�
Hall expects the event to become even more popular over time.
鈥淭his is year three, and so far, it keeps trending up,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 sure next year there鈥檒l be an even larger turnout.鈥�
鈥淗all鈥�-oween Costume Contest Winners:
Solo student costume: Junior Kameron Sato
Group student costume: Junior Dea Zajimi, senior Danny Cox, senior Julia Maecker, senior Sophie Rong, senior Joey Rueff, senior Kristy Rueff, senior Quinn Sarrazin and senior Sophia Turean
Solo staff costume: English teacher Jordan Wells
Group staff costume: Science department
