In spirit of the recent Halloween season,  National English Honor Society held a Spooky Writing Contest. Submissions for the contest were due Tuesday, Oct. 31 and the top three winners were announced the Friday, Nov. 10. The three winners were junior Madelyn Lynn, who came in third place, junior Adam Marcovich in second and senior Tricia Drumm in first. The first place winner received a $10 gift card to Starbucks, while second and third place received $5 gift cards to Starbucks.

According to junior vice-president Paige Nentwig, the group came up with a Halloween-themed event because of how close the event was to the holiday.

“Halloween is in October, so we thought a spooky writing contest would be fun,” Nentwig said.

The purpose of the contest was to incorporate a typical spooky Halloween theme into the piece, according to advisor Page Anderson.

“The officers really initiated the idea,” Anderson said. “They shared it with the group; the group that it was a good idea, so we just put together a competition. Basically, the abstract of the contest was to create a story that freaked people out or made you think a little bit.”

Anderson believes the contest had 60 applicants, and the selection process was extensive. The three winners had to go through several rounds of judging before being chosen.

“We gave six volunteers 10 stories, and from those 10 stories, they had to narrow it down to their top three. We re-shuffled, narrowed it down to their top two, re-shuffled [and] narrowed it down to their top one,” Anderson said. “So, we ended up actually having seven [entrees] for the 60 that we received, and then we narrowed it down as a group.”

Nentwig, who was also a judge for the contest, said she was looking for specific qualities in the stories.

“They had to have good grammar,” Nentwig said. “They had to have both good writing techniques and their story had to be good. They had to have a combination of both.”

To ensure the contest would get as many submissions as possible, NEHS and Anderson took certain steps to make students aware about it.

“The way we advertised the spooky writing contest was to put it in announcements,” Anderson said. “I also shared with my fellow English teachers that we were doing the contest and to prompt their students to submit to the contest if they wanted to.”

Anderson believes that ultimately the event was a team effort from the group.

“They came in before school, talked about the stories, what they liked best about the stories, and whether or not they were spooky enough for their liking,” Anderson said.