This year, Haldane High School celebrated various Homecoming traditions during our annual Spirit Week. These conventions include: color wars, decorating shopping carts, and playing games in the gym during the Pep Rally. Throughout the history of Haldane, Spirit Week has been a period in which students express their pride for the school by participating in the activities and themes.
Janine Junjulas, the senior office assistant at Haldane High School, experienced Spirit Week as a Haldane senior in 1986. Junjulas explained that when she was a student, Spirit Week differed from how it is now. For instance, students used to create and perform skits based on the theme of their grade during the Pep Rally. Additionally, bonfires were held on the softball field on Friday night, during which the varsity football players would be individually recognized and celebrated before the big game. These past Haldane traditions are no longer observed, but alumni can still reminisce about these memorable moments from their high school lives.
Michelle Cordaro, Haldane social studies teacher and another graduate from Haldane, still recalls each fall sports team having their own Homecoming games during the celebratory week. “Each team had their own homecoming game, and I remember everyone trying to make it to other people’s games so we could support each other,” said Cordaro. Students’ support for each other is shown through instances like these, when students all try to make it to each other’s Homecoming games. In this way, Haldane’s Homecoming games display the school’s unique sense of pride and enthusiasm fostered by the school community.
Another notable difference between older generations’ Homecoming experiences and this year’s Spirit Week was the discontinued tradition of decorating the high school hallways. Students used to decorate the halls where their lockers resided based on their chosen theme that year. This meant seniors decorated their corresponding ‘senior’ hallway, juniors decorated their designated ‘junior’ hallway, and so on. Cordaro said, “decorating the class hallways was always something we looked forward to. Each class would have its own theme –still like we do now– but we would stay late one night and decorate our class hallway according to our theme”. Cordaro believes decorating the hallways was an enjoyable way to connect with peers and fully immerse the grades in the class themes.
Today, Haldane decorates shopping carts based on their grade’s assigned Spirit Week theme. Furthermore, during the start of the Pep Rally, members of the student council push fellow class officers around the gym, passing by each of the four bleachers where students sit alongside their own grades. In an interactive way, each grade displays its creative spirit for its class.
