By Ty Quirk
On October 17 from 7:00 PM to 10:00 P.M., the Cupola Yearbook Committee, in collaboration with WARP Gaming and The Westerner, hosted their annual Halloween event “Spooky Spectacular.” While the event has traditionally been held just before Halloween in prior years, the Cupola E-Board figured it’d be good to make Spooky Spectacular feel more like a kickoff for Halloween this year, rather than an event held on the exact day. As President of the Cupola, Michael Pedro, had stated before in the ads leading to the event: “It’ll be so good it’s scary, so enter if you dare.” And it was indeed so good it was scary. While there was a costume contest and Halloween music throughout the night, there was also a murder mystery hosted by WARP Gaming’s Tabletop Subsection Head, Ty Quirk.
Michael Pedro has been a part of Cupola Yearbook for all four years of college, becoming President of the club in his sophomore year. “I think the event went well!” says Pedro. “There was a great turnout and the costume contest was the most contested it’s ever been. People were engaged with the activities, and everyone seemed to have a great time.”
As the person who ran the murder mystery aspect of the night, I feel like people could escape their real-world problems for just a half hour to an hour to try and figure out who killed Pepi Roni, owner of La Sperenza Restaurant. With multiple characters, such as Pepi’s wife and children, his identical twin brother and his fiancée, the twin brother’s wine manager, father of the local church, and a friend of Pepi’s wife who is a professional psychic, people tried to uncover who killed Pepi Roni through accusations and revealing clues. Attendees were invited to play the roles, and I talked to a couple of people about the event to get some insight on how they enjoyed Spooky Spectacular.
“Spooky Spectacular was incredibly fun and creatively done,” says first-year student Gwendolyn Moyer. “I had a lot of fun playing the murder mystery with my friends and judging the costume contest alongside a couple of the Cupola E-Board! The decor and music were great too!”
Junior Margo Thompson had a lot of positive things to say about the event. “I had such a great time at the Spooky Spectacular! The decorations were amazing and really set the mood, and the pizza was a crowd favorite. My friends and I loved the photo station, we got to take pictures together and even print it out to keep. The murder mystery game was definitely my favorite part, though. We got so into our characters and were acting out the parts, it made the whole night so much fun!”
I talked to the new Cupola Yearbook treasurer, Reyez Hangsleben, to find out why other people should join the Cupola Yearbook: “The Cupola Yearbook is a great way to get involved with the student body and get to know many people on campus. The club is friendly and wants its members to succeed.
If any of that sounds interesting or you just want to join the Cupola Yearbook committee, come to the general meetings on Tuesdays from 5:30 – 6:30 in Sleith 105. Or, you can follow @wnethecupola on Instagram to keep updated with events that happen hosted by the Cupola Yearbook.
Also, big shout out to The Westerner and WARP Gaming for hosting some of the games at this event. For anyone interested in The Westerner, meetings are on Wednesdays from 5 – 6 or follow @wnewesterner on Instagram. And for anyone interested in WARP Gaming, multiple meetings are held throughout the week. You can follow @wne.warpgaming on Instagram to learn more about events coming up!
