Cal Poly Pomona’s Pride Center threw its annual Halloween party Thursday with an estimated attendance of at least 90 students, triple the number of students present in previous years.
The Pride Center’s gathering, “Spooktacular Halloween Party,” was held from noon-1 p.m. Thursday in the Bronco Student Center’s (BSC) Ursa Minor and advertised on Instagram as a fun costume contest with free food.
The Pride Center brought pizza and salad from Roundtable Pizza for the party, which is normally enough for the standard 30-40 attendees. This year, however, over 90 CPP students gathered to partake in the festivities.
Cheyenne Thomas | The Poly Post
After every student got a bite to eat, the festivities kicked off.
The first activity was a raffle. Two lucky winners were able to claim Hydro Flask water bottles. The first raffle winner won a large bottle and the second winner won a standard-size bottle.
Following the raffle was the costume contest. Seventeen students initially entered, and each round allowed the audience to cheer for the contestant they liked best.
Dana Reico, a social justice leader at the Pride Center whose pronouns are she/her/hers and they/them/theirs, assisted in the contest, holding her water bottle over the heads of contests that were being voted on.
After the first round of voting, the 17 contestants were reduced to the top eight favorites.
The top eight costumes were: a Jurassic Park employee, Zorro, a vampire, Pestilence, Prince Zuko from “Avatar the Last Airbender,” a Pokémon trainer, the Pokémon Sylveon and Bowser from the “Super Mario” video games.
Cheyenne Thomas | The Poly Post
Later, the contestants were dwindled down to a top four: the vampire, Pestilence, Prince Zuko and the Pokémon trainer.
The final vote was based on the relative sound of applause for a certain costume, to which Prince Zuko won the most.
Byron Lie, a third-year hospitality management student dressed as Prince Zuko, won the grand prize: a gift certificate for Regal Cinemas.
With the end of the costume contest came the end of the “Spooktacular Halloween Party,” then students gathered their belongings to get to their classes on time.
Reico gave a quick reminder to the audience as they left Ursa Minor that the Feminist Fight Club was present to give any information about its organization.
“I think it’s because it’s Halloween,” said Bri Serrano, the coordinator of the Pride Center. “(The party) never fell on Halloween (before), so it could have something to do with turnout.”
The Pride Center’s next event for the semester is Safezone training with Employee and Organizational Development and Advancement (EODA) Nov. 6. To RSVP for this event, visit https://mybar.cpp.edu/event/4813258.
