Despite the cold and piercing wind on Halloween night, the streets of Abbot were thawed by a sense of community and fun as students paraded through the cluster for this year’s Abbotween celebration. The event was planned by the Abbot Cluster Council and included a campfire at Stowe, a Haunted House at Whitney, and trick-or-treating paired with unique activities at each dorm. After weeks of planning in cluster council meetings, Abbotween ranked high amongst PA’s Halloweekend lineup.
Despite the spooky themes associated with Halloween, Kamryn Cabrera ’28 found the night goofy, lighthearted, and social. The event encouraged new friendships amongst strangers through its collaborative and upbeat activities.
“It’s a very funny experience. I know some groups came in singing different songs to not get scared, and then some of the scarers were just having fun. And I made a lot of new friends yesterday with people I have never talked to before, both from my grade, the grades above me, and juniors as well. So I feel like it was a very welcoming atmosphere,” said Cabrera.
Samantha Gong ’28 held a similar sentiment, while also noting the scale of the event and certain activities at Abbotween. The night’s energy, she said, created a warmth that defied the biting cold.
“It was very lively, very loud. I think if you looked around the streets of Abbot, going down to all of the dorms, you could definitely see a bunch of people, and it felt warm, even though the night was very, very cold. And then there was a campfire, and it was really lively over there as well, and there were a bunch of kids who wanted to do the murder mystery. So I think it was very community-building,” said Gong.
Students going door to door had the opportunity to collect clues for the murder mystery that would enter contestants into a raffle for AirPod Pro 3 if they could solve it. For many, including Travis Guan ’28, the game became one of the night’s most exciting challenges.
“I think going through the murder mystery with my friends was quite fun. We had a lot of fun trying to solve the clues and also got a bit bamboozled a little on some of them. For instance, in the middle part where you’re supposed to eliminate the clues; there were quite a few misleading terms. Also, [there are] double terms. You can eliminate one thing twice. And at the end, I think we had, like, three places that we didn’t eliminate, even though we went to all the houses it was great,” said Guan.
Besides the trick-or-treaters, many boarding students in Abbot were also reveling in the holiday spirit. Many dorms organized their own activities, including tarot readings and themed decorations. Maggie Mercado ’26 helped lead Carter House’s setup.
“What I did was I set up a shop for my dorm. Our dorm really wanted to do tarot readings for people, so that’s what we did on top of also having one of the clues for the murder history and having candy to hand out for trick or treating,” said Mercado.
Coming off of a week packed with majors, Halloween’s lighthearted and social tone was especially refreshing. For Gong, the event offered a much-needed break.
“[My favorite part of the night] was watching people ring the doorbells at Double Brick and doing a jump scare or going around and getting some candy along the way. I think that was spending time with friends as well, ’cause it’s been a stressful week, and this is a really nice debrief,” said Gong.
The Haunted House at Whitney was the final major stop of the night. Cabrera reflected on its success as one of Abbotween’s proudest moments.
“[It was great] seeing the outcome of it all and seeing how many people were excited to go into the Haunted House and how long the line was, to the point that we had to kind of speed run through some of the sessions and not have them be as long. It was a good thing, I would say, it was nice to know that we had a good outcome, and a lot of people showed up and had fun as well,” said Cabrera.
Ronal Dominguez Hernandez ’28, a member of the planning committee, outlined the process of the event, and what the future holds for next year’s Abbotween.
“This year it was just the Cluster Council. We met every other week a total of three times [and] throughout that time, we brainstormed ideas, prizes. We thought about the prerequisites to getting something like this done, and then we tried to execute it,” said Dominguez Hernandez.
He continued, “I’m just wondering how we can grow Abbotween? And I’m also wondering how we can get other people involved too? I know there are a lot of faculty kids that live at this campus that might want to do something in Abbotween, like the little scavenger hunts and the haunted house.”
