First-place winner Andrew Byrd (left) and second-place winner Sarah Flaherty (right).
The Recreation and Welfare Club Frederick hosted a Halloween costume contest in the Discovery Café on October 31 that featured bugs, Beanie Babies, and bovines, among other creative costumes. Contestants gathered in the back of the Café and stood, gallery style, while lunch-goers voted on their favorite get-ups.
The Scientific Library team arrived with a Pac-Man-inspired group costume featuring the titular character along with Ms. Pac-Man and the nefarious ghosts. Event organizer Marsha Nelson-Duncan traded places with Wonder Woman for the day, while her NCI Office of Scientific Operations colleague Melissa Porter came as Louise Belcher of Bob’s Burgers fame.
First place was awarded to Dr. Manta, a bug-eyed scientist carrying a “human head” that looked suspiciously like Andrew Byrd, Ph.D., senior investigator in the Structural Biophysics Laboratory. Dr. Manta even had a PIV card with his photo, which Byrd says he (briefly) considered using to enter Fort Detrick and the NCI at Frederick campus that morning.
Voters were equally impressed with Sarah Flaherty, a Cancer Research Training Award fellow in the Optical Microscopy and Analysis Laboratory, who seemed to have stumbled right out of Middle-Earth. She and Byrd initially finished in a tie for first, which was broken when the contestants themselves voted for their favorite costume.
For their outstanding apparel, Byrd and Flaherty received movie tickets and a Dunkin Donuts gift card, respectively.
