BUCKLAND — Between the pep rally and football game last week, Mohawk Trail Regional School celebrated its Booster Week by opening its doors to the community with Haunted Hallways.
“It’s a lot of fun and it builds community,” Alia Woofenden, the school district’s After Care Program director, said of the activities.
Along the seventh-grade hallway, an open classroom offered pumpkin painting and LEGOs for children to play with. Racks of children’s costumes, offered by the nonprofit It Takes a Village, were there to take home.
Lanaya Craig, 6, of Buckland, picked out a princess costume to take with her.
Already dressed as a pumpkin, Lanaya gripped the hand of her mother, Charlene, as they waited in line to enter the Haunted Hallway in the eighth-grade corridor.
“If all else fails, jump on mom,” Lanaya’s father, Don, told his daughter as she was about to enter her first Haunted Hallway experience.
Once the witch/gatekeeper, Ezra Greenfield, called for “three large and one small souls (to) enter the hallway,” the family ducked under hanging decorations to get through.
A series of haunts awaited them, including a student popping out of a faux coffin, and another student quoting “Macbeth” and slamming a plastic skull into the ground.
In the chilly evening air outside, Lanaya gave her review.
“That wasn’t scary,” she said. “I wasn’t even afraid of it.”
Her parents chuckled and her mother added that although she said she wasn’t scared, Lanaya’s mouth was agape the entire time.
“It was cool. It was scary,” said 9-year-old Oliver Cranston after he emerged from the haunts with his mother, Carrie.
Oliver said the person laying on the floor asking for help was scary, as well as the one who was pretending to silently convulse on a gurney.
As the Halloween activities wrapped up, dozens of students huddled near a bonfire.
Co-advisors to the Student Council, Laura Rubinaccio and Bob Mastorakis, praised the efforts of the 38-member council in planning and executing Booster Week’s events.
“It’s a lot, but the kids really do a wonderful job,” Rubinaccio said, adding that Booster Week allowed students to work on improving leadership skills by delegating tasks and communicating with students, the administration and other adults outside of the school.
This year was the second year that math teacher Eric Colbeck’s band performed, and hot chocolate was served next to the bonfire before the football game. It was first year that games — which pitted sports teams against each other — were played at the pep rally.
“That’s how the kids are making it their own,” Mastorakis said of deciding which traditions to hold onto and what new additions to make.
“It’s been a crazy week, as it usually is,” said 10th grade Student Council member Octavia Crawford.
“Things have been running smoothly, though,” added fellow 10th grade Student Council member Dennis Simmons.
For some seniors, Booster Week has been fun, but exhausting.
“Running on Red Bull and school spirit,” is how senior Ella Seward, of Ashfield, described the event-filled week.
Senior Natalie Szewczyk, of Ashfield, enjoyed how her class dressed up and decorated their hallway to match the sitcom “Friends,” adding that it provided a sense of unity for her class.
Alison Blakeslee, a senior from Charlemont, agreed, adding that the school’s unity felt stronger than in the past.
“Our school spirit was unmatched,” said senior Siena Lewis, of Buckland.
Reach Maureen O’Reilly at moreilly@recorder.com or at 413-772-0261, ext. 280.