On October 25, the week before Halloween, West Chicago Community High School created the WeGo Spooky event in the school to welcome the community.

WeGo Spooky offers fun activities everyone from West Chicago and the surrounding community can enjoy with their family, specifically the little ones. The event, held in the hallways and Commons, gave both the parents and kids the chance to dress-up in costumes.

Student Council hosted the event, but other clubs were invited to participate. Approximately 11 extracurricular groups put together a game or activity for attendees.

“It’s a couple years now…maybe about…five or six years ‘cause then we took a little time off because of COVID. But we were looking to do something for the community and people in Student Council, um like kinda saw some other ideas that were happening in the community so these ideas kinda came together to create this event,” said Candace Fikis, social studies teacher and Student Council adviser.

“Hosting community events is important for our students and school to connect with future Wildcats, introduce younger students to our school, and give back to the community in a positive way,” said Mark Wolfe, Division Head of Career & Technical Education and Director of Student Activities. Throughout the year, Wolfe helps give ideas to clubs to make events/trips available and fun. 

Families could participate in all the activities WeGo Spooky offered without charge, like face painting, games, a photo booth, mini golf and more. 

“This took weeks of planning in advance and a ton of time that was put into making all of the activities/games. The National Honor Society offered a variety of games and opportunities to get candy. Such activities included Poke a Pumpkin, Pin the Bowtie on Mr. Bones, applying temporary tattoos and knocking down a pile of monster decorated buckets with plastic eyeballs,” said senior Ximena Valenciano, the Senior Service Officer for NHS. 

Additional activities were offered by Creative Writing Club, who performed a Spooky Simon Says & Hot Potato game using plush toys to pass. GSA provided attendees with paints and construction paper to create silhouettes. Robotics Club engineered a Build-a-Bot game. Also, the Student Council seniors designed a mummy bowling game where children could throw mini pumpkins at a stack of toilet paper. 

WeGo Spooky is designed to encourage visitors to get into the Halloween spirit and have fun.

“My mission for this school event was to get both existing and new NHS members involved in the community through volunteer work and allow new members to experience what it’s like working as a team. I also looked forward to hosting a successful booth where children maintained engagement all throughout and would want to come back for more,” said Valenciano.

Staff members also saw the event as a positive experience for students and children from the surrounding community.

“These are kids that are going to be future Wildcats. They can walk in to the school, and I think that our students are excited to see future Wildcats come in and maybe see their neighbors, or siblings, or cousins,” said Fikis.

“I think it’s fantastic. There’s so many fun things for our kids, and kids in the community, to do and activities for different age levels. I’m really grateful that WEGO put it on for us,” said Nelson.

“I think it is adorable, and so well-run. It’s so nice to have a free event for Halloween,” said English teacher Mary Fremeau.

Many attendees felt WeGo Spooky was a way for the community to come together while providing kids with a fun opportunity to participate in a WCCHS tradition.

“It’s perfect because it’s free and welcoming to everyone,” said Fremeau.