Moonlight Madness

This last Friday, October 31, the annual Moonlight Madness festival was held downtown on Chadron's Main Street. This event is put on each year by Chadron High's FBLA Chapter in association with businesses on the Chamber of Congress. Each year a committee within FBLA from the high organizes the event, with members leading games, tricks, and handing out candy to Halloween goers.

This year’s main leaders were Mrs. Noble, a sponsor for FBLA and teacher at Chadron High, and Margreta Welch, the activities director for FBLA and a fellow student at Chadron High. The beginnings of Moonlight Madness were fairly recent, Mrs. Noble said. " Moonlight Madness has been going on since 2007...and is beginning to pick up again." This community project works because FBLA is partnered with members of the Chamber, and also happens to dual as one Chadron FBLA Chapter’s projects they get points for.

As with any project that can bring a smile to families’ faces, Moonlight Madness is received warmly from the community. Mrs. Noble said, "The community reaction is always positive, which gets our name out there, and let's people know we are involved...the community is thankful."

The students take an equal share in FBLA's Moonlight Madness: manning the booths, helping set up games, handing out candy, and contacting businesses. students’ roles varied however. Harlie Kennell, a student at Chadron High and a member of the Moonlight Madness committee, said, " I dressed up like a cowboy, and ran the booth where you threw rings onto pumpkins."

Welch said, " I organized the games and made sure they ran smoothly during the vent."

Veronica Parish, a senior and committee member, said, " I ran the pumpkin slime game...which happened to be something not a lot of people were interested in because it involved getting messy. "

Overall, this year’s event brought on challenges and success. Planning and weather always seem to be difficult part of Moonlight Madness. Welch elaborated on this saying, "The hardest part was the planning and rounding up supplies, but the easiest was the actual event." Parish had expectations for "warmer weather", which was definitely an offender against this years event, with winds between 20 to 30 miles an hour and low temperatures. However, we can always look toward the future, which towards Mrs. Noble said " ...the more we do it the easier it gets."