Halloween is a time for dressing up in costumes and eating candy and free food. Unfortunately, it is also a time for many college students across the country to celebrate with alcohol and put themselves in dangerous situations, such as blacking out, drinking and driving, and other dangers. Stockton actively participates in raising awareness about the dangers of alcohol during the holidays by hosting ‘Lolla No Booza’ with the help of the Alcohol and Drug Peer Educators from the Counseling Center. The party was created with the purpose of proving that drugs and alcohol aren’t necessary to have a fun time with your friends.

This year’s party was themed Hollywood Horror, with decorations featuring iconic horror movie characters. The event offered free food like pizza and mozzarella sticks, mocktails, escape rooms in the Meeting Rooms, games like Jenga and ping-pong, and prize baskets given out every half-hour. They also hosted a costume contest by taking Polaroid pictures of dressed-up guests and hanging them with small trophies and prizes available for the winners. The categories were Most Original, Best Duo, Funniest, Scariest, and Best Overall.

At the entrance, guests were given goodie bags and tickets to write their names and Z numbers on so they could potentially win one of the many baskets offered. They could get even more by playing games or dancing with their friends; the DJ would offer free tickets to whoever could show off the best dance moves. With the warm weather this week, guests could even go outside and eat, mingle, or play other games.

Gabby Grappaldi, a junior, was one of the students in charge of organizing this year’s party, being part of the Alcohol and Drug Peer Educators.

“We basically made this event to get [students] to not go to parties, stay away from drinking, and have nice and sober fun!” Grappaldi stated. “We were at 200-300 [guests] this year, so pretty good turnout. We have the escape rooms and the Recovery Centers down the hall, too.”

Nylah Murphy, another junior, commented that the party, “Was fun, it had a lot of minigames and incorporated a lot of the students’ participation. It was very diverse in song choices. The basket raffle was pretty fun, too.” It was her first time attending Lolla No Booza, being a new Stockton student, and she enjoyed it very much. Michael Torres, a senior, thought the event was “Extremely fun, I liked the games. My favorite was the [Ladder Toss game], which I won, and Jenga.”

For more Halloween events, check out Ospreyhub!