During the week of October 1-5, Colonia High’s student council hosted its annual Spirit Week to kick off the school year, bring classes together and raise class funds. Each day of the week is themed to bring out healthy competition among grades. In the end, the seniors took the top prize.
Students and teachers at Colonia know what a big deal Spirit Week is. All grades try to participate as much as possible to win at the end of the week. This year, 2/3 of each class participated in spirit week, which comes out to around 1,000 students participating. Freshmen coming into the Spirit Week ritual for the first time might think, “Is it cool to participate in this?” The answer would be: yes. Although some students might not agree with that statement, most love to participate and look forward to this week all year. With people loving this week so much and participating as possible, the student council is trying to make different spirit themes for the days.
Throughout the week, there were many different themes and donations. Each day there was a tremendous amount of participation. Monday started off with an American day. Students wore either red, white, and blue or camoflauge, and brought in donations of bags of candy for troops serving around the world. Tuesday, a Colonia favorite, was pink out day. Students dressed up in pink and donated $1 for Breast Cancer research. Wednesday was tropical day, with a donation of non-perishable food items for local food banks. Thursday, another student favorite, was decades day. Students threw it back with an outfit from their favorite decade and brought in a donation of tissue boxes. Friday was the most PATRIOTic day of the week, Colonia Day. Students decked themselves out in their Colonia apparel.
With a bunch of different events, someone has to be in charge of it all. Student Council Advisor Mr. Hutchinson took on this big responsibility. When asked about his opinion on the overall participation for this weeks spirit week, Hutchinson replied with, “Participation through the roof. The Freshmen were very good this year, Sophomores were very passionate, expected more from the Juniors, and the Seniors were good.” One grade who especially surprised him with their participation were the Freshmen. The Freshmen this year participated a lot more than ones in the past, and were even in second place for Pink Out Day.
At the end of the week , students competed in the annual pep rally. Freshmen to Seniors all showed their competitive sides and come for the win in each of the three events. This year, the pep rally included a scavenger hunt, a fierce game of musical chairs, and a water balloon toss to top it all of. The band and cheerleaders created the upbeat atmosphere. However, Sophomores came and decided they wanted to win. Therefore they won each event.
Throughout the competition, the Seniors and Sophomores were neck and neck. Each day, there were only minimal points separating the two. However, the Seniors pulled out the win at the end of the week, for the second year in a row. The results, the Seniors winning by only one point led students to bring up that the sophomores were robbed of the win and the recurring question, “Is it rigged?” Mr. Hutchinson exclaimed, “Sophomores were not robbed- it was fair and accurate. Where they really got hurt was in their morning participation (ink, blankets, dressing up). Seniors had two more dress up than sophomores. Sophomores needed a clean sweep, and the fact that they weren’t was pretty much the difference.”
In contrast to their loss, the Sophomores were all proud of their class. Sophomore Class President, Harrison Brindley, added, “Spirit Week went well, I’m very proud. We could have won and we can win next year by getting more people involved and donating the supplies.”
