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Halloween events yield high turnouts

By Great Lieske
and Jason Hochstatter
IV Leader Staff

    Many IVCC student organizations hosted Halloween-related events during the holiday season and turnouts were well above expectations.

River Currents Movie Night
    River Currents, along with the Students Government Association, hosted a "Fright Night Film Festival" on Oct. 27 and the IV Leader student newspaper hosted a Halloween Costume Contest during the afternoon of Oct. 31.
    The River Currents scary movie night started early in the afternoon and didn't end until past midnight. Throughout the night three free movies were shown in the Cultural Center, "Shaun of the Dead," "The Exorcist," and "The Shining."
Attendance to the event was much higher than anyone had perceived it would be.
"I thought the event was very well attended," said Yelena Kajevic, faculty advisor to River Currents. "We had close to 150 people attend. I was really proud of my River Currents staff and how much time and enthusiasm that went into making this a successful event."
    Roughly 25 people entered the River Currents costume contest, which gave out awards for funniest, scariest, most original, and best costume.
    Ken Decker won funniest costume and was dressed up as a suave ladies man. Heather Bowers won scariest costume as a dead murder victim and Stefanie Broviak and Kevin Ruttcowski won most original costume dressing as the couple, Popeye and Olive Oil. The best costume award went to Jordan Hubinsky and Brianna Bernardi who dressed up together as Hercules and Xena.
Jason Pastorik, River Currents member and emcee to the costume contest, thought that the movie night was a big hit and the number of students and community members to attend was very high.
    The best part of his evening, however, was the many activities that were set up in the Cultural Center lobby for participants to enjoy and the fact that there was an event on campus that entertained him.
    "Finally, the college had something fun to do," said Pastorik. "I really liked the video games we played in the lobby. I had a great time."
    Two television sets were in the lobby for students to play Dance Dance revolution and any other video games that were available.
Since the turnout at the movie night was in such high numbers, future campus movie nights may be in the making.
    "We are in the works to plan for another one since we had such positive feedback from attendees," said Kajevic.
    "I really want to extend my appreciation and thanks to those who came out and supported River Currents. It really meant a lot to create a sense of community here on campus," added Kajevic.

IV Leader Costume Contest
    Starting at noon on Halloween, flocks of students filled the cafeteria for the first IV Leader Costume Contest.
    The contest, which had three separate competitions (scariest, funniest, and most original) was judged by three staff members, Wes Black, Rebecca Donna and Julie Sherbeyn, who attended the event dressed Black. The judges were chosen by student recommendations.
    According to Maggie Rhynes, the IV Leader editor who planned the event, the turnout was much better than expected.
    "Overall we had almost fifty students enter the contest," said Rhynes, "which was a great number considering this was the first year for the event."
    The event also drew a large crowd of spectators. Participants were each given a number and then paraded in front of the judges.
    The most original costume award went to Kristie Clauson, who dressed as Aragorn from "The Lord of the Rings" book and movie trilogy.
    Clauson said that she was inspired to dress as Aragorn because she has been a huge fan of the series since before the movies were even released.
    Molly Walter took home the funniest costume award. She dressed up as a sock monkey. She explained that she got the idea to dress up as a sock monkey because of "an obsession of a friend's mother."
    The scariest costume award went to Jamie Meyer who dressed as an imp, which she got inspiration for from a Renaissance fair. Costumed from head to toe, Meyer's even had an animated owl perched on her shoulder.
    The awards of $50 were given out to the winners with the assistance of improvised drum rolls from the on looking students.
    The IV Leader staff hopes that this has been the first in an annual costume contest that will continue for future years.
    "It was great to see students participate in campus activities, and the whole event was a lot of fun to watch!" said Rhynes.
 

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