The lights were dimmed as Morgan students piled into the gym’s bleachers, all students stood and faced the inner gym floor waiting as music played in the background and Mr. Luther welcomed everyone. On October 31st, the first-ever Halloween Pep Rally was held during advisory to mixed review.

At the Halloween pep rally, students watched multiple activities, including a relay race and lip-syncing battle.

Morgan holds Pep Rallies for sports and before big games in our school, but this year’s Halloween advisory was different. This rally, less focused on introducing athletes, involved a costume contest between students and a school winner, consisting of a 50$ prize.

To wear a costume on Halloween, students were asked to pay $1, and if they wanted to participate in the contest,  $5. All the donation money from students wearing costumes went to the Shoreline Food Pantry, which is an organization set out to help the less fortunate people of Clinton who cannot afford food for themselves. They give out free food and items to help those people.

After the pep rally, sophomore Nicolas Farr, who watched the pep rally from the audience, was interviewed to get his opinion and feedback on the rally.

“I thought it was a little weird,” stated Farr. “Pep rallies just aren’t my thing.” The rally, which was held during advisory instead of at the end of the day was an issue for Farr. He struggled to get excited early.  When asked if he would participate in future rallies, he stated he would, but it would all depend on how he would feel and what the next rally would be about. Mr. Luther stated how he wanted students to feel good about the rally and make them want to participate in more.

One issue that stood out was during the lip sync battle. During the challenge, the music glitched out, and at the moment no one knew why. In the interview with Mr. Luther, he said it was a glitch in his phone’s music app. Luther tried multiple apps and songs and even two different phones, but he couldn’t get it to work. He said he didn’t know exactly why it wouldn’t work, and that it might have just been a simple glitch.

Despite the glitch, a lot of time and energy was put into the production of the rally. Mr. Luther explained how he and Mrs Hagness always think of ways to help the students and make the school feel fun. During the pep rally, there was a costume contest. One dollar to wear your Halloween costume to school and five dollars to participate in a contest. The winners were Luis Calle Andrade and Maiky Adanelly Vidals Sanchez. The rally ended up raising $163 for the Clinton Food Pantry.

In an interview with Mr. Luther, Vice Principal, he talked about how excited he and the staff were to host this rally, commenting, “Mrs. Hagness and I thought it would be really fun to do something in celebration of Halloween and to give back to the community.”

Some students really enjoyed the experience. Sophomore Hayden Darr was interviewed about his experience participating in the Halloween Pep Rally. When asked how he felt about his overall experience participating, he said “It was fun trying to get the energy up. I liked starting the clap in the stands.” He then went on to explain how he first heard about the rally when his friend, Josh Nobitz, asked if he wanted to do the lip sync challenge with him. Darr was also asked to read some directions to the audience as well.