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4 | November 7, 2019 | the orland Park Prairie news <strong>OP</strong>Prairiedaily.com Custodian transforms school overnight for Halloween Bill Jones, Editor Bill Pluta, in his Halloween best, stands near the graveyard he crafted on his own time and money inside of Liberty School to help the students celebrate Halloween. Pluta has worked in the district for 20 years, serving today as a custodian at Liberty. Photos by Bill Jones/22nd Century Media When students at Liberty School leave the building on Oct. 30 every year, they start to see hints of what custodian Bill Pluta has done there for Halloween the past five years. It’s not until Halloween morning, though, that anyone but Pluta truly understands the scope of it. And by Nov. 1, it vanishes as if it was never there. “First thing in the morning, I love standing out in that hallway and watching them freak out,” Pluta said of seeing students react to Liberty’s Halloween transformation. “That’s the best part.” Pluta — on his own time and his own dime — this year outfitted the elementary school with roughly 40 inflatables, which could be found arching over each entryway, in the multipurpose room and around the gymnasium/lunchroom. Keeping in mind the students there run from grades 3-5, some of the displays — which include animatronics and ghosts that zip on wires overhead — provide little scares but feature zero gore. “I keep things fun,” Pluta said. The piece de resistance is a graveyard scene tucked into a corner near the multipurpose room. There, bat props hang overhead, a vulture rests on a perch, an inflatable tree is haunted by ghosts, and several other haunts both spook and delight the students who pass them. “The graveyard is just cool,” Pluta says with pride. Pluta, a self-described “car guy” whose prized possession is a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda, pays tribute to this second greatest love — his wife is first, but it’s a close contest, he joked — with vehicle-based Halloween inflatables in the gymnasium. Among them is a prototype of a monster food truck. “I try to look for the odd stuff — things you don’t see too often,” Pluta said. Though he claimed he does not go as wild at home with the decorations, anyone who came across his home this year would have seen a full-sized Halloween stagecoach traveling across his front lawn. He also decorated his archway and had several other conspicuous decorations around the property. Pluta, a 20-year employee of D135, has his own definition of “low-key,” and he admitted what he has been doing for the past half-decade at Liberty has taken on a life of its own. “It gets a little bigger and crazier each year,” he said. Going all-out with decorations is a tradition he said was passed down to him by family. “I got the bug from my grandfather back in the day,” he said. The internet has helped him track down unique pieces he regularly has shipped to his house. And while he does smaller displays throughout the school year for other holidays, Halloween remains his main focus, which helps explain why he spent fourand-a-half hours before his shift finishing this year’s display. Pluta said he is just happy the school has allowed him to do it and that an announcement is made so the students know he is behind Pictured are an animatronic display (top) and one of the many inflatables Bill Pluta places around Liberty School for Halloween. it, but the true reward remains seeing the reactions of everyone entering the building. “First thing in the morning, it’s just fabulous,” he said. “It’s just to have a little fun.” Night of a Thousand Lights fundraiser for My Joyful Heart coming to Orland Park Submitted by My Joyful Heart Tickets are still available for the My Joyful Heart fundraiser Night of a Thousand Lights, set to take place from 6-11 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16, at Silver Lake Country Club, 14700 S. 82nd Ave. in Orland Park. The cost to attend is $50 per person or $400 per table of eight, but prices go up after Nov. 11. Price includes family-style dinner, dancing, cash bar and silent auction. There are more than 60 gift baskets for the silent auction. The nonprofit organization is a children’s charity that provides both life’s necessities and encouragement to Chicago-area children and teens. My Joyful Heart helps more than a thousand youths and teens. The goal is to assist more. Volunteer opportunities also are available, as well as a needs list for the children, which can be found on the website. Donations can be made online, as well. For tickets and more information, visit www.myjoyfulheart. org.
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