Red/White Week Preparation

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Students and teachers put in extra hours of preparation for Red/White Week.
Words by Zoe Schaver and Sarah Rohleder Design by Eli Fosl, Erin Bridges, Miranda Thompson, Christa Iwu & Virginia Johnson

Each year, on the Monday morning of Red/White Week, yard after yard of balloons and sign after hand-painted sign appeared mysteriously, draping every inch of every floors hallways. And each year, students marveled at the floor-to-ceiling decorations as they trudged in from the cool darkness of an October morning. In fact, the spirited Red/White decor was the product of a Friday evening work night the week before. Dozens of students stayed after school until 9:00 p.m. eating M&Ms and Cheetos, talking, filling the hallways with blown-up balloons and balloon machines, climbing to the top of ladders and stretching on tiptoes to hang painted signs.

For some students, the night produced service hours for Key Club or NHS; for others, it was just a way to show spirit. Even teachers participated, helping direct people and equipment. By the time the night was over, the school was transformed. Leading up to Friday night decoration, Executive Council and Steering Committee members stayed after school to decorate the signs they would be taping to the walls. Usually every Wednesday we would have to paint a ton of signs, Logan Stearman (10) said of the sophomore class hallway. We would have a different goal each week for the amount we were expected to paint. We wanted to be the best, and we were,

cause we won the hallway sign contest. Such a enormous undertaking resulted in an equally enormous mess. I remember one time, someone flipped a paintbrush and I sat on it, Stearman said. Class sponsors were in charge of supervising the chaos of decoration day to keep it relatively in order. We had glitter on our signs, so we had a lot of glitter just falling on everything, said Ms. Alesia Williams (English), a sophomore class sponsor. But other than that, it went pretty smoothly for us. It gives students real ownership of the spirit of the school, instead of just saying, Yeah, were going to have a pep rally, and thats it. It really makes students feel like the school is theirs.

This is page A of the Tip-In, it is not p. 17 in the book. Left this photo on page to make sure the photos crossing the gutter match.

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1. BLOWIN UP Volunteering for Executive Council, students arrange and fill balloons. Ms. Laura Spiegelhalter (Life Skills) assigned the students to each floor to decorate the halls. Friday afternoon, we stayed after until like 8:30 to hang the signs, Harper said. Photo by Darby Brown. 2. GRIN AND BEAR IT Peter Nguyen begins to feel the pain while decorating for Red/ White Week. My fingers got numb from blowing up balloons, Peter Nguyen (12) said. Photo by Christa Iwu 3. POWER HOURS Playing the waiting game became common for Aarthi Vadhanam (10) and the rest of the members of Executive Council as they prepared the halls for Red/White Week. The group had to wait on numerous materials in order to fully prepare the school. We didnt have enough signs for the halls for some reason, Vadhanam said, so we had to end up spacing them apart so they wouldnt look awkward. Photo by Yazmin Martinez 4. COORDINATION FRUSTRATION After hanging up countless signs, Jasmyn Hamilton (11), Tia Harper (11) and Michael Brown (12) receive orders to change them. Mr. Wilson told Tia and me to color-coordinate them and we literally had just done them, Hamilton said. We had to redo them because the colors were too close together, there were too many of the same color, and you cant hang them above the door, so it was frustrating. Photo by Darby Brown

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