Nome celebrated Halloween in a three-day extravaganza

Ghosts and ghouls gathered at Nome Elementary School three spooky nights in a row last week for stories, screams and sweets.
On Thursday night the Nome Community Theater kids put on three short spooky plays in the commons area of NES. Director Rachel Hensley said she was shocked by the interest when she held auditions a few months ago, pivoting from one show to three to accommodate.
“The kids were amazing,” Hensley said.
Every year the Nome Beltz junior class puts on a carnival and haunted house to raise money for prom and graduation gifts the following year. Junior Class Advisor Rosa Wright said the money raised throughout the event pays for all of prom.
“I always tell the kids, if they want to have a good prom they have to throw a good carnival,” Wright said.
Friday night was haunted house night with the production in full swing and the line of thrill-seekers wrapped around the cafeteria commons.
Juniors began preparing for the carnival at the beginning of the school year with committees meeting multiple times throughout the month as the event gets closer.
Volunteer Chris Steppe led the haunted house committee this year helping kids design and plan out the four “rooms” of the house. This year the theme of fright night was Lores and Legends, drawing on tales of creatures, both local to the region and international.
One of the rooms was designed around the legend of the Ishigaq, little people who live in caves throughout the tundra. There was also a room containing the Qallupilluit, a creature of story that’s said to live along the shoreline under the ice. Legend has it they steal children who get too close to the water.
The other two rooms were designed around the folklore of La Llorona or the weeping woman and Wendingo. Also a water spirit in Spanish folklore, the ghostly woman is condemned to haunt riverbeds at night after drowning her children. Wendingo is a creepy deer-like creature of North American oral tradition.
Rumors of how scary the haunted house was floated through the line, some kids, dressed as ninjas and zombies, went wide eyed as Wright made the announcement that there were flashing lights and to “enter at your own risk.”
On Saturday, the gym hosted a number of carnival games and costume contests. Kids could spend their tickets, which they bought at the entrance, on face painting, bounce house and cake walk, among other games.