In preparation for the first City College Fright Fest, students are working diligently to ensure that this event is the best it can be in an unlikely collaboration between the Student Honors Society, the Associated Student Government, and the Theater Arts Community.
Grace Wilson, the event coordinator and president of the Theatre Arts Community talked about her efforts in collaborating with the Associated Student Government, Student Honors Society, and the Theatre Arts Community for Fright Fest.
“I thought it would be fun to have as many people on board as possible,” Wilson said. “I didn’t want it to be only a theater thing. Now we have all hands on deck.”
“Grace is the one who originally had the idea [for this collaboration],” student advocate Yonatan Libman said. “She’s kind of been orchestrating it on that front, and then I think that collaborating with Honors and ASG has helped to really make it all possible.”
Fright Fest’s orchestrators started as separate parties. “We had our meetings,” Wilson said. “And [Honors were having] their meetings as well.” But when she suggested a Halloween event, the Honors Society asked if they could be a part of it too.
“And then it just kind of kept going from there,” Wilson said. “They were super excited about it because Halloween is really fun. I’ve not planned something to this scale before, so I’m really glad that [ASG and Honors] were so willing to help.”
Having different points of contact was a big utility, said ASG president Sofia Raquel Smith. “Being able to reach out to specific people and combine our funding [was beneficial], because obviously for events, funding is always a very big deal.”
Smith never fully realized the amount of tedious busywork that went into preparing on-campus events like this until she got fully involved with Fright Fest. But so far, it has been an enlightening and exciting experience for everyone involved.
Attendees are invited to wear their favorite costumes, get face paint, enjoy candy, and participate in a range of fun Halloween activities. Fright Fest will be from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct.30 at the West Campus lawn. Live music, a raffle, a pumpkin carving contest, and much more excitement are expected.
Smith hopes that with Fright Fest, a wellspring of collaborative projects will follow. Smith, Libman, and Wilson all expressed enthusiasm for more collaboration between departments and students.
“One of our goals for this year was to try to host as many events as possible,” Smith said. “That’s one of the best ways to create a sense of community on campus, to make students feel like they’re all connected. And we think collaborating with the other clubs on campus not only gets them more involved, but it just creates more of a community.”
