On October 27, West Chicago Community High School’s Student Council, with the help of several other clubs and organizations, hosted a Halloween event for the local community called WeGo Spooky.

The event, held at the high school from 4:00 p.m to 5:30 p.m., was open to everyone in and out the community. The hope was to help families get into the Halloween spirit by giving them a fun and free activity centered around the holiday. Student Council encouraged attendees to wear their Halloween costumes, and to participate in free activities such as face painting, freeze dancing, and a photo booth. All these activities were hosted by the clubs – including Student Council, FCCLA, National Honor Society (NHS), WeGo Global, Gender-Sexuality Alliance (GSA), Alegria and Art Club – inside the school. 

Marc Wolfe, Activity Director, said,  “We were really pleased with the amount of students and people from the community that came and are definitely looking forward to continuing to do it each year.”

WeGo Spooky first started in 2018 and has been hosted every year since except for 2020 due to the pandemic. 2021 marks the event’s return. Some participants were hesitant to join the event due to COVID, but those who did come enjoyed the festivities. Attendance was on-par with previous years, according to Wolfe.

Junior Jack Riconoscuito, who volunteered at the event, said, “WeGo Spooky was a great event for the students of West Chicago to give back to their community, and help make COVID-friendly Halloween fun for kids.”

The groups who volunteered worked diligently to provide safe and entertaining options. Wolfe went into more details on the activities included at the event: “We had a photobooth, a pop a pumpkin for a treat by NHS, bozo buckets, little mini golf, but we called it pumpkin golf, pumpkin bowling… Art Club painted arms and hands. [There was a] scavenger hunt that FCCLA did, and Alegria did a dancing game like Simon Says and musical chairs. It was fun.”

Senior Meadow Zomparelli spearheaded the Pop-a-Pumpkin game and temporary tattoos offered at WeGo Spooky. For Zomparelli, the event carried significance not only for the community, but also for National Honor Society, in which she serves as an officer.

Zomparelli said, “I think it’s really important that we cultivate NHS as more than a group of students that perform well in the classroom, but a group of students that have a heart to serve the community too. WeGo Spooky was a great kickstart to this vision, and I am beyond excited for what’s to come!”

“For me, it was important to do the event because I love giving the kids in our community a fun night, and to talk to the older ones that show up about high school. My favorite part is that the whole time, I was at the drawing table, and we were just coloring, and it was like therapeutic for me and the kids, I think,” added senior Sofia Schumann.

WeGo Spooky was open to everyone, no matter their age, and so both parents and children dressed up in costumes. 

“Most of our students that were there had Halloween clothing on like orange and black. Two students dressed up as the Wildcat mascot. The little kids liked that a lot. All the little kids that attended were all dressed up in costumes and their parents too,” said Wolfe.

Overall, WeGo Spooky was a really great way to get the community and the school into the Halloween spirit. The fun activities hosted by school clubs brought people together following a year of distance.

Senior Anthony Sanchez summed up the event: “The reason why I did the WeGo Spooky event was not only because it was going to be fun, but also to represent and help out to the community by opening this event to the kids to know what most of the kids are like here in WeGo. Not only was it important to do it, but it was very important for me to join a club like [Student Council], knowing that my fellow classmates and I could make high school fun for the rest of the high school students.”