Costume contest

To promote Halloween spirit, on Oct. 31, Samo hosted it’s annual costume contest in front of Barnum Hall at lunch. Students came to observe the various creative costumes created by their fellow students.  The lawn was crowded with super heroes, a variety of creepy, macabre, blood-soaked characters, as well as some in costumes that were cute and child-like.The contest consisted of three categories: Best Female Costume, Best Male Costume and Best Group Costume. With so many unique costumes, it was tough for the faculty judges Randy Denis and Andrea Shore to decide who would be walking away with the prizes, each a hefty supply of Halloween candy.“We were looking for originality and the amount of work that went into the costumes when deciding on the winners,” Denis said.The Group Costume category was the first group to walk the stage. Both students and staff members participated, with costumes ranging from zombies to Pac-Man. In the end, the zombie office ladies, Diane O’Brien, Wilma Iniguez, Angie Gonzalez, Yvonne Strahn, Jenny Nicolas, and Rebecca Lugo took the win with their ghoulish costumes.Perhaps the office ladies favorite part of the experience was walking the halls and peering into classrooms to see the students reactions to their creepy costumes.“We wanted to creep everyone out. I think we’re all most likely to dress up if we’re all being something together,” Gonzalez said.Next up, the boys presented their costumes to the sound of cheers from fellow student spectators. It was a tough call, but ultimately Nathan Garcia (’18), dressed as the Samo Viking, stood out overall.“How can you beat that baby coming out of Ms. Gonzales' tummy? As for the others, I believe Nathan made his own costume, and the two ladies who won went all out and looked fantastic,” Shore said.Naming a winner for the girls category was certainly a tough decision, so the judges agreed to split the prize between Audreyalice Evans (’21) and Mina Milosevic (’18), dressed as Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas and Lydia from Beetlejuice, respectively.“I love Tim Burton, and I’ve always wanted to be a Tim Burton character,” Evans said. “I love Halloween. It’s my favorite holiday, so winning the contest was the cherry on top of the cake”.The costume contest, with just the right amounts of spooky, gruesome and fun, was an enjoyable event for Samo students to show their Halloween spirit, and something students look forward to each year.