On Friday, October 25th, Chamblee Charter High School students came together to celebrate Halloween with a school-wide “trunk-or-treat” organized by the Student Government Association. The event was planned as an effort by SGA to foster school spirit and bring students closer together. 

The event was planned by SGA officers Solange Jackson and Claire Turney, with the original idea being pitched by junior Olivia Castro. Although Castro does not hold an officer position, she was still instrumental in the high turnout and participation. 

“I came up with the idea but a lot of the organizational credit goes to Claire and Solange. Since they’re the presidents of the junior and senior classes, they took charge when it came to the logistical stuff like talking to Barnes and making sure we could do it,” said Castro. “But I helped out with getting people involved, like I tried to make sure there were a lot of people of different friend groups, because after I saw people start to sign up, the first few people were all from the same friend group so I tried really hard to tell people in my classes to go and that they should come and bring their friends.”

Claire Turney, the junior class president, was pleased with the event and the students that came. 

“We were trying to do things to get people in the Halloween spirit, and Olivia Castro suggested a trunk or treat and a lot of people agreed that that’d be really cool, since it’s just a great mix of tailgating and trick-or-treating,” said Turney. “And I know people aren’t in costume or anything but I think it’s really fun. I came out here to help set up and people were already out here throwing the football, decorating their cars like crazy. It’s awesome. I’m so happy how it turned out.”

The event, as Turney explained, was organized to foster the “Halloween spirit”, which excited many students. 

“It really gets everyone into the spirit. It actually makes it feel like fall. It’s a really fun thing for us to all do and definitely gets people into school spirit together,” said sophomore Denise Rocha. 

Upperclassmen looking to celebrate this “spirit” volunteered to decorate their cars and hand out candy to the attending students, with many participants creating intricate and time consuming decor just for the event. Senior Cadence Kelly was one of the students excited by participating cars. 

“I love some of the cars, there’s a lot of really cool decorations. They’re just all great. SGA should do this again, even though I’m a senior and I won’t be here, this should definitely be a thing for all the lowerclassmen and incoming classes,” said Kelly. 

Castro was also happy with the car displays. 

“The decorations [went really well]. I was very surprised. I did not think this many people would decorate and work with their friends. They’re all so intricate, too, so I was really impressed,” said Castro. 

The event was one of the first this school year besides sports games, which meant many freshmen had the opportunity to experience Chamblee school spirit. 

“I tried to get a lot of sophomores and freshmen to come because they don’t have cars so they don’t have as much motivation to come and so I talked to all my freshman and sophomore friends. I told them to come, I texted all my friends, all my group chats,” said Castro. 

These efforts seemed to have been successful, as many freshman came out and seemed to really enjoy the evening.  

“It’s really fun and it gives you a much different experience than the middle school events. This is the only event I’ve gotten to go to besides football games. They should definitely do it next year,” said freshman Zoey Smith. 

Many students also saw the evening as a place to meet and talk to new people. 

“There’s a lot of my friends here so I like that. The event’s pretty fun and everyone just seems like they’re having a really good time. I think it kind of helps people get to know each other more,” said freshman Bo Mallard. 

Although the event was overall successful, it definitely has some room for growth. 

“We were able to get people out of seventh period a little bit early to help them decorate and there were some flaws with that pass system, but this is only the first year,” said Castro. “I would want to work on the logistics, especially with the parking spot system, just making sure that you can be connected to a senior if you don’t know a senior [so that you can decorate your car even if you don’t have a spot in the senior lot]. I’d also like to improve the whole pass system with getting kids out of class a little earlier, just so they have time to decorate and add any finishing touches.”

Students also saw things they’d like to see again next year. Junior Hope Collins hopes that the event will grow in popularity and size in the coming years. 

“SGA should 1000% organize this again next year. I think it’s really great to have everybody talking to new people and I think after everyone saw how much fun it was this year even more people will come next year,” said Collins. “So instead of just a few cars, I think eventually there’ll be whole rows of cars. People should bring their families next year, too, and dress up in costumes.”

If anything, these suggestions are indicative of how successful the event was. Hopefully this success will only be the beginning of a positive change for Chamblee’s school spirit and culture.

 “I feel like it’s the first time in a long time that I’ve felt like Chamblee really came together for something in an organized constructive way, that wasn’t a protest of some kind,” said Collins. “This is an actual fun event.”