The Boogie Bash is a fun Halloween dance and costume party meant to bring the community spirit to WHHS. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the dance would be lost as one of the few middle school experiences. This year the spirit of Halloween is going to be moved online. 

Ohio’s COVID-19 cases are surging and it’s up in the air if WHHS will return to in-person learning this year. Adapting will be one of the biggest struggles the school will face this year but that doesn’t mean students can’t honor the Halloween spirit. Halloween is the only holiday people can be anyone they want to be. There are no bad costumes when talking about how you want to express yourself. Whether you are dressing up as a ghost or Charlie Brown, you’re putting yourself in somebody else’s shoes. Participating in events like the Boogie Bash provides a break from schoolwork and can foster a better school community. 

This year, the Boogie Bash is a costume and dance competition. Submissions are due on Oct. 28. Using the hashtag #WHHSBoogieBash, students can post a photo of their costume.  Then they can submit their photo in Google Forms at the Boogie Bash How-to. To enter the dancing competition, they can post a video of themselves dancing to a Halloween song using a Google Drive file on the Google Forms link. Another way to enter would be by using #WHHSBoogieBash and submitting a link to your account. 

There are four categories of the Boogie Bash costume contest: most creative, best edit, best overall, and most on-point replication. The winners will be posted on Schoology and the Eagle Flyer and winners will earn gift cards. The only rule is that costumes have to be appropriate, so students should avoid revealing costumes or cultural appropriation. The music and dances also need to be appropriate. 

According to English teacher Sam Stephenson, the seventh and eighth grade student council executive board will look at many criteria when judging entries. 

“If they made it themselves, we look for if it’s been done before, if it’s a new idea, or if it’s something that is pretty common. You can still win if your idea is pretty common. We try to look at craftsmanship so like what type of material they used, do the colors match. See if they do a really good replica of whatever costume we’re looking for and the last one is usually enthusiasm based on what they are and how they behave in their costume,” she said.

For group entries, Stephenson said teamwork is key.

“For the group costume, we usually look at how many people are involved and try to look at craftsmanship so how they made their costume and how well they worked together. If they look really uniformed.”

Being online, it is hard for students to feel like they are a part of a community that they can’t see, but it is still important to celebrate the traditions that bring us closer.