Although it was a cloudy, gloomy Halloween afternoon on campus, Bosco Student Plaza was filled with spooky delight as students were transformed one by one into all sorts of beings from zombies and creatures to Harry Potter and Star Wars characters.
The LGBT Resource Center put on a costume contest on Monday, where many K-State students gathered in Bosco Plaza to celebrate Halloween and show school spirit. Students were also able to stop by the University Life Cafe photo booth and dress up in different costumes to get their pictures taken and posted online.
“We kind of wanted to do a costume contest in tandem with the University Life Cafe’s photo booth that they do every year,” Elli Archer, graduate student in counseling and student development, said.
Archer said the event was inclusive and welcomed everyone.
“A lot of this was just for fun, but on the flier on the very bottom there is a little rainbow,” Archer said. “I made sure to ask for kind of a rainbow of costumes just to help promote inclusivity on campus. We wanted this to be as inclusive as possible for any kind of gender, any kind of sexuality, anyone is welcome.”
There were five judges for the contest and they picked the top three winners according to who had the most total points.
“This is our way of celebrating Halloween, which I think is the best holiday of the year,” Charlsie Fowler, Union Program Council arts co-chair and junior in apparel and textiles, said. “The Union Program Council is just helping everyone come together and have fun.”
While this was the first year for the costume contest, the University Life Cafe’s photo booth has happened every year since 2013.
“We have students pick out props and costumes, dress up and then we take the photos and upload them to our website,” Wendy Barnes, Counseling Services’ online programs coordinator, said.
The photos can be found on the Counseling Services’ website.
“Students can go onto the brew, which is one of the sections of the website and look at the ‘out and about’ on campus Halloween photo booth, then they can download the pictures and do whatever they want with them,” Barnes said.
The photo booth is there for students to have fun and to help raise awareness for Counseling Services, Barnes said. It is also to raise awareness about the University Life Cafe.
“University Cafe is a really wonderful health and wellness website for college students and it was actually created by K-State college students in conjunction with Counseling Services,” Barnes said.
Barnes said the website provides students with a lot of resources to help with academics, anxiety and stress management. She said there are also some tools on there that help students balance their life and succeed academically and socially.
April Ascher, sophomore in political science, said she didn’t participate in anything last year, but this year she’s gotten really involved. She said students shouldn’t be afraid of trying new things and getting involved.
“I love Halloween and I think it’s really cool that the LGBT center is putting this on because it brings everyone together,” Ascher said.
Archer said there were anywhere from 15-40 people at the event, and she hopes the contest grows each year.
The winner of the costume contest was Papa Legba, a voodoo priest. In second place was Kylo Ren from Star Wars and Andorian Zhen from Star Trek took third place.
