From samurai to children’s books to former Hackley teacher Dr. Sosa, students showed off their costumes in a Community Council-hosted contest designed to bring the community together and win a variety of prizes. This year, the council hosted its second annual Halloween Costume contest, a first in Barry Allen Center (formerly the Center for Creative Arts and Technology) and Diller Hall.
On Halloween, which happened to fall on a Friday, the council used the opportunity of having an already planned weekly Diller Hall assembly to host its second Halloween costume contest, open to any and all members of the Upper School. Council offered multiple prizes for different categories and group sizes, in an attempt to get as many students to enter as possible. The first category was by the number of people the costume had, with prizes being awarded for best solo, duo, and group costume. The second category was for the superlative, funniest, and most creative.
For solo costumes, costumes ranged from popular TV show characters to a flight attendant. One of the most popular costumes of both the solo costumes and the contest as a whole belonged to senior Isaac Ahn. Isaac’s costume initially looked generic, dressing as a flight attendant, which he acknowledged in his pitch to the audience, stating, “This may look confusing or generic to some of you.”
However, it was what came next that stunned the audience when Isaac revealed his costume to be of former Hackley Spanish teacher Avraham Sosa-Velasco, who abruptly departed the Hilltop to become a flight attendant for United Airlines.
For duo costumes, the trend was similar but prominently featured some duos of siblings who elected to dress up together for Halloween, coincidentally, both from fairy tales.
For the Pedraza siblings, Fiona and Emerson, the senior-junior duo went as the Princess and the Pea, a popular children’s fairy tale.
Twins Rami and Leila Ibrahim went as Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, with the costume receiving loud support from the junior class.
The winning costume from the duos belonged to senior Gabriella Petriello and Zion Bennett, going as Guy and Tiny Diamond from the movie Trolls, a part of a larger Trolls group costume, with the two seniors bringing the energy and hype as they prepared for their NYSAIS playoff game later that day.
For the large group costumes, there was no shortage of entries, with over five groups throwing their name into the hat, predominantly seniors who wanted to go out with a bang for their final Hilltop Halloween.
Seniors Calliope Yanuzzi, Elle Karger, and Skylar Van Eck dressed as the mascots from household cereals, with Buzz the Bee from Honey Nut Cheerios, Toucan Sam from Froot Loops, and Lucky from Lucky Charms, respectively.
Seniors Micah Jones, Shikhar Misra, and Miles Leighton went as characters from Star Wars. The Trolls were back again, this time in a larger group with Gabriella and Zion being joined by Annika Duggan, Angelina Hummel, Evelynn Beaton, Gabi Nunes, Leila Dillow, and Jordan Kleeger; a fan favorite costume that was met with loud applause, particularly from the senior class.
The group costume winners were a group of juniors: Annabella Mancini, Caitlin Morrow, Charlotte Heim, Lola Frey, and Miya Lauher, all going as popular children’s books. Considered by many to be “classics,” the group went as Paddington, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, The Day the Crayons Quit, Pete the Cat, and The Absolutely Essential Eloise, respectively.
The Most Creative Award went to two people: Troy Song, a junior and a perennial winner, who won this year for his Samurai costume, now winning the award for two years in a row. Troy has always created his costumes from scratch, working for days to collect materials, paint, and tape his pieces together. The other winner was sophomore Zaira Sammi, who entered as the Queen of Hearts, creating a costume out of multiple decks of cards.
The Funniest Costume was awarded to the “Louvre Thieves,” a multi-grade costume. Andrew Carpenito, Logun Gunn, and Rodrigo Serevin led the group of seven seniors off the stage, being chased by freshman cops led by Maddie Fitz-Simmons.
Winners from each category were awarded a prize ranging from a $25 Chipotle gift card for solo, a pair of Dunkin gift cards for Duo, Tuck Bucks for the group costume, and smaller prizes for funniest and most creative. Either way, prize or not, every entrant left satisfied with the opportunity to showcase their costume to the Upper School and, for some, get the crowd riled up for the rest of the day.
