Changes to Alvirne Spirit Week include helping elderly

Published: Thursday, December 3, 2009

Alvirne High School has seen some exciting new changes to its Spirit Week this year.

Foremost, while Spirit Week has traditionally been in October, it was changed to this past week. Although this seems a minor modification, the adjustment allows athletes the opportunity to participate in the events during their offseason. In the past, athletes were unable to miss their sports practices to participate in the fun and wild activities.

Alvirne has traditionally had the same dress-up themes for years – for example, Spirit Day and Wacky Wednesday. This year, some of the entertaining dress-up days changed, as well.

A new addition was Neon Day, when students wore bright highlighter-worthy colors to school.

One senior bemoaned the difficulty of finding the “out-of-style” neon colors. That just made the competition more interesting to see which grade would have the most neon attire and win the contest.

One of the best additions to Spirit Week this year definitely is the community volunteer activity. On Veterans Day, 50 or more students from each grade climbed onto school buses to drive around town and rake leaves for elderly residents.

“It’s definitely a nice addition to Spirit Week,” the senior class adviser, Ellen Frenette, said of leaf raking, “because it gets us out and into the community and gives the kids another way to unite as a class.”

Unfortunately, not everyone has been able to participate in the fun.

After winning their game and earning a spot in the playoffs, the football team was encouraged by coach Robert Nimblett to not participate in Spirit Week activities. He was hoping to avoid injuries before the team’s playoff game Friday night against Bishop Guertin.

This has sent many other students into an uproar, as football players have always played essential roles in the Spirit Week competitions.

Jeremy Baker, treasurer of the senior class and co-captain of the football team, was torn between his desire to help the class he leads and the team that has become his family.

“It’s a little disappointing that we won’t be as engaged in Spirit Week as we usually are,” he said, “but we’ve worked hard to make the playoffs and I’m definitely willing to make some sacrifices to try to win a state championship.”

“We will really miss the players because they’ve always been a part of Spirit Week,” Frenette said earlier in the week, “but everyone understands that they have a huge game coming up and we wish them the best of luck.”

Lauren Straight is a senior at Alvirne High School in Hudson.