GA hosts many exciting Halloween traditions, including team costumes, candy drives, and the Halloween Parade. The Halloween Parade is an important tradition for Lower School students that many look forward to.
Involving the entire GA community, hundreds of students, employees and families gather in the Connor Quad for the parade. With various costumes, the Lower School students walk around the Quad to show off their costumes to a cheering audience.
Participating in the Halloween Parade is a memory that stays with students throughout Upper School.
“It was always fun to show everyone my costume and see what everyone was wearing and getting to see the older kids’ costumes as well,” Avery Nissman ‘25 said.
“The football team is always enthusiastic about the parade. I enjoy being there for the lower school to be the person they look up to,” football captain AJ Towsen said.
The Halloween parade is a fun way to bring the community together and celebrate the spirit of the fall season. With all the fun that goes into the Halloween Parade every year it also involves planning.
“Planning it is pretty simple. We pick a date and time, invite Lower School parents to come and watch, and students to participate in dressing up and parading. If students don’t want to participate they can do an alternative activity,” Head of Lower School Ms. Szczepkowski said.
The Halloween spirit doesn’t stop in the lower school. Upper School fall sports teams also participate by dressing up in team costumes. Each team has to decide on a different costume and show up to the parade cohesively.
“We usually pick a month in advance, and all talk about the going on trends and what’s happening at the moment,” field hockey captain Sydney Wanner 25’ said.“We pick our costumes based on what it shows. We picked ‘The Incredibles’ last year because superheroes represent strength.”
“Usually, we decide our costume by discussing it with the team, or the captions pick it,’ Towsen said.“Last year, we picked the night before.” In previous years, the Upper School fall sports teams’ costumes have been exciting and entertaining for the Lower School students. Some have included “the Incredibles”, “Despicable Me”, construction workers and “Smurfs”.
This year, the teams will come to the parade with new costumes to show off.
“For halloween the girls soccer team has decided to be Winnie the Pooh,” soccer captain Kirsten Wetzel 25’ said.“We were picking between Winnie the Pooh and Henry Danger but ultimately agreed on Winnie the Pooh.”
“We were between being characters from”UP ” or “Ninja Turtles” and we decided to go with “Ninja Turtles”,” Towsen said.
“The girls field hockey team this year is going to be Rocky because we saw it as a symbol of strength because of the inspiring movie on his success in boxing,” Wanner said.
Overall, the Halloween parade puts the GA community in good spirits. This tradition will continue bringing all divisions together to create lasting memories for all age groups.