Cape student mixes creativity and community for Halloween fun

For the last three years, Cape junior Mia Jaoude, a straight-A student and accomplished swimmer, has spent a sizable part of her summers, between competitive swimming, volunteering and working, focused on preparing intricate, handmade Halloween costumes with movable parts. Each year, she has challenged herself more and more.

It all started with wanting to test her crafting skills beyond making Star Wars cardboard helmets. She began with a dragon costume, complete with a fully movable tail and light-up eyes, because dragons are her favorite fantastical creatures. Mia, who wants to be a veterinary surgeon, said she has always been fascinated with dinosaurs and reptiles in the real world, and dragons in the fantasy world.

After the dragon was a hit at her school, she decided for her second year to make a Demogorgon character costume with movable flaps, while introducing other materials in addition to cardboard. While all those creations had been made to satisfy her creative urges, they were put in action mostly for fun at school and with friends.

This year, however, she took everything up a notch and went all out with a creature from the film, “A Quiet Place.” For a more realistic feel, she fashioned a jaw that moves like a human’s, and created fully supported arms.

And what better to do with such a costume than make Halloween come alive for neighbors and tiny—or sometimes not so tiny—trick-or-treaters, some of whom were terrorized by the statue when it suddenly came to life as they approached. Reactions included, “That made my night!” “She’s real!” and “I thought you were a statue!” So, while most teenagers were out having fun or hanging with their friends that evening, Mia chose to make Halloween a little more real for the little ones. Wonder what next year’s costume will be?

To view some short videos of the creature interactions, go to facebook.com/share/v/17WDtbm17g/?mibextid=wwXIfr.