For thirteen County Fairs, the Class of 2020 has passed through the courtyard collecting hot dogs and hamburgers from the Senior Barbeque to supplement their root-beer floats and hot tea. This year, however, seniors have relocated to the math wing to start a new tradition: Senior Scaries.

After years of censored senior MX videos, allergies, and other wiener-related issues, sophomore grade heads and County Fair leaders Andrew Bigelow and Victoria Lee, along with senior grades heads Yadiner Sabir and Emma Castaldi, made the decision to change the long-standing senior tradition.

According to Sabir, there are a multitude of reasons behind the change. Years ago, she said, the senior class would purchase meat, vegetables, and everything else required for a barbeque, and spend the Thursday night before County Fair chopping vegetables and preparing their booth. Then, seniors would arrive early the morning of County Fair, and light up the grill.

“Over the years, responsibilities were taken away for different reasons,” Sabir said, “to the point where the senior class was only assembling the burgers and giving them out, not taking part in the majority of the meaningful tradition.”

Sabir also said there have been concerns about the safety of the food. This year, Quest Food Services will provide the food at County Fair in order to eliminate health risks. Hot dogs, burgers, and snacks will still be available in the Courtyard.

Given the loss of the responsibilities coupled with the rise in food and health concerns, Sabir said it was “time to give the senior class a tradition they could own.” 

“We wanted to give them something they could design themselves,” she said. “We felt that this particular senior class could make that change happen and start a new legacy. I have known this class for four years and given the way that they partnered with younger grades last year around social issues we felt like this was the class that could handle the change and feel proud about it.” 

Seniors are operating two different haunted houses this year: one in the math wing and the other through Mr. Levine’s room to the Harris Center. The upperclassmen will either lead groups of four to six kids through one house designed for JK-fifth graders or another for sixth through eighth graders. The younger audience will encounter pirates on their adventure, while the older kids will experience a Jaws-themed experience.

The Class of 2020 landed on the haunted house idea following a vote. Students assembled into groups, developing potential booth ideas, and later the grade gathered a comprehensive list on which to vote. The end result was determined through Google Form.

“It was entirely up to the senior class,” Castaldi said. “We gave them the reins, it went to a vote, and they’ve decided to start this tradition that will hopefully last years and years and years.”

Iz Bruozis, Rohan Jain, James Leet, and Andy Wessman, a group of senior volunteers, have been working with Sabir and Castaldi to order props, run graderoom, make the County Fair video, and execute their vision. “I have been here since sixth grade, and County Fair has always been something I looked forward to,” Leet said. “It’s a phenomenal opportunity to have a great time with students beyond your grade, something that doesn’t happen as frequently as I wish it did, so I saw an opportunity to get involved and I took it.” 

Leet said most of the work thus far has centered around logistics, figuring out how two simultaneous haunted houses could run, asking teachers to use their classrooms, and picking out costumes and decorations for the senior participants. Although Leet jumped at the opportunity to get involved in Parker’s newest tradition, he does mourn the loss of the barbeque. “I think it’s tragic. Personally speaking, I have enjoyed how the seniors never had a video. It’s become an amusing tradition. And, I liked the idea of barbequing something as the very oldest. It feels like you’ve reached the peak, you have the enormous responsibility of controlling the food. It says: ‘you can handle an open flame,’ and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do growing up.” Leet does feel, however, that the haunted house “should be an adequate replacement.”

Sabir and Castali have high hopes for the senior class’s new tradition. “I hope that the final product is something that the students feel proud of and excited about,” Sabir said. “I hope that the kids and the people that come through come out loving it, and they look forward to experiencing it again next year. I really look forward to this class delivering a successful experience for themselves and for everyone else.”