ALTON - An Alton High School student’s artwork has been shared around town to promote the Alton Halloween Parade.
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Planned for Oct. 31, 2026, the 109th Halloween Parade is a citywide tradition. But this year is especially exciting for Monee Brice, a freshman at Alton High School whose poster design was chosen to promote the parade. Brice and her teacher, Jenna Godair, are eager to share her talents and engage with the community in this way.
“My student was so excited that she won. She could not stop smiling, so it’s pretty awesome,” Godair said.
The East End Improvement Association, which organizes the Halloween parade, contacted Godair about this opportunity. For the last several years, students in Alton High School’s Intro to Visual Communications class have designed posters for the parade.
The East End Improvement Association picks their favorite design and uses it to advertise the parade around town. Godair noted that the project allows students to practice designing for a client, which is valuable “real-world experience.” As the first project in her class, it also encourages the students to continue designing and learning.
“It just gives them kind of a confidence boost and gets them energized for the rest of our projects this year,” she said. “One, it’s a great real-world experience, but two, it just gets them excited for these types of projects all throughout the year in my class.”
For their second project, kids in the class are currently designing logos for the student organizations at Alton High School. Godair emphasized the value of these projects because they require the students to interview clients and deliver a design that fits their requirements, like a professional graphic designer.
She added that many of her students have taken art classes before, but few have experience with programs like Adobe Illustrator before they enter the Intro to Visual Communications class. She hopes the class teaches them a lot about design, art and client interactions, and she said it’s been “awesome seeing the progression of their learning” so far.
Brice shared she didn’t expect to win the contest, but she was excited to receive the news. She admitted it’s been “weird” to see her design all over town. Her mother signed her up for the class originally, but she has really enjoyed learning more about art and design principles.
“It’s cool,” Brice said.
She added that she always attends the Halloween parade with her family and plans to join the fun again this year. She hopes to pursue nursing after high school.
Godair was delighted to learn that Brice had won, and she hopes the experience continues to inspire her student. She noted that Brice is a standout already.
“Since winning this contest, I’ve just seen her confidence and her spark for designing grow exponentially, and it’s just exciting,” Godair said. “I’m so happy that she’s given this opportunity from the East End Improvement Association. I’m excited to see what else she comes up with. She’s been very enthusiastic about her designs since she’s won the contest. It’s just a really great program.”
The 109th Alton Halloween Parade will kick off at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. You can watch a livestream of the parade on RiverBender.com.
