Students dressed up according to multiple themes, as well as donated to Harvesters in tandem with the yearly Winter Dance.
Barstow upper schoolers participated in Spirit Week coupled with a Harvesters donation drive organized by Student Council, Pep Club, and Kariessentes just before Thanksgiving break.
The first day, almost every student donned (or simply stayed in) their pajamas for the classic PJ Day. Plaid was a staple, with the red, blue, and black stripes showing across the halls of the school.
“I thought it let students relax a bit more, but it wasn’t really that much of a change since many students wear pajamas as their normal attire,” says Maya Theobald ‘24.
Next, students partook in “Dress Like a Teacher Day,” where students picked their favorite faculty member and commemorated them by adopting their usual garb (maybe even poking fun at the faculty). Jack Cuezze ‘24 was especially successful in dressing as Upper School English teacher Mark Luce. Onlookers were visibly jarred when seeing both walk in the halls together.
“It was honestly very spot on. I could hardly tell who was who,” says Theobald about Cuezze’s costume.
Additionally, Isabell Kuti ‘23 dressed as 11th grade English teacher Marina Ganter, perfectly copying Ms. Ganter’s classic thigh-high black boots, chunky sweater, black vest, and glasses.
Wednesday was iconic duos day, where students found partners to costume themselves together. For example, Cuezze and his partner, Ava Levin ‘24, where peanut butter and jelly. A few sophomores partnered up to be Vampire Diaries characters Elena Gilbert and Caroline Forbes.
In my opinion, though, no one tried as hard as previous B-line staff member Izzy Parr ‘24 and me. Showing up in waders, rubber boots, and baseball caps, we handed out cranberry themed products and acted as the Ocean Spray cranberry farmers, a duo that we admire very much!
Thursday saw a rerun of a theme last year, “Anything But a Backpack.” Most dedicated to the cause was David Guldin ‘24 who brought a trolley to lug around his school supplies. Many, however, opted for less unwieldy options such as a small cooler, a tote bag, or simply carrying their supplies by hand.
Finally, Friday has students dress in their class colors (green for freshman, gray for sophomores, white for juniors, and black for seniors) Friday, though, was especially exciting because of the after school Powderpuff game between the junior and senior classes. With the juniors dressed in homemade pink t-shirt jerseys and the seniors in specially made powderpuff pennies, the teams took to the turf soccer field with David Muhammad (Dean of Student Services) as referee.
The seniors took an early lead 7-0 thanks to an incredible pass by Aishi Sethi and a run by STUCO President Amelia Mohamadi. The juniors, though, answered immediately with Hayley Greenwood running the ball all the way from the first line of scrimmage to a touchdown. Trash-talking continued throughout the event, but the seniors stayed suspiciously quiet when junior Zoey Hrabe ran the ball for another touchdown, putting the score at 7-14.
Even with copious amounts of cheating, bribing the referee, and bending of the rules, the seniors were not able to make up the deficit. The juniors currently lead 2-0 in grade-wide competitions, thanks to an underdog win against the seniors in the Harvest Festival frisbee game.
Another spirit event was the Harvesters food drive that pitted middle school students against the upper school, with the Middle School being promised a full week of ice cream if they came out on top and the Upper School, a day of pizza lunch.
Finally, the week culminated in the annual Barstow Winter Formal, located in the Varsity Gym. Students voted on the theme and picked ‘Night in the City.’ STUCO decorated accordingly, adorning the gym in fairy lights, city scapes, and a NYC themed photo station.
Students typically were only at the dance for 30 minutes to an hour, but enjoyed the musical selection and chance to talk to friends. Many, however, wish more people actually danced at the event, since standing around made many feel awkward.
“Someone requested Suavemente, and nobody was hype, nobody danced,” says B-Line Editor Allison Orozco ‘23.
Even with a few hiccups, students thoroughly enjoyed spirit week, and hope to continue old and new traditions for years to come!
