BY CHRISTINA APPIGNANI & MICHELLE YIN
During the week of Thanksgiving, Malden High hosted its annual spirit week, in which students and staff participate by wearing outfits that correlate with the day’s theme. Monday was Pajama Day, Tuesday was Wacky Tacky Day and Wednesday was Blue and Gold day. Wednesday was also the day of the annual Pep Rally, in which the entire school gathers in the gym to support the football team in their yearly Thanksgiving game against Medford and where spirit teams representing each individual class compete against each other.
Spirit Week encourages students and staff all around the school to show their Malden pride. Each of the four classes participates in Spirit Week, and tallies are counted by members of National Honors Society to determine how many people from each class dressed up for each particular day. This year, the seniors won both Pajama Day and Blue and Gold Day, and the juniors won Wacky Tacky Day.
On Wednesday, the Pep Rally kicked off with the MHS chorus performing a rendition of the “The Star- Spangled Banner.” The MHS Step Team as well as the cheerleading team also performed for the crowd before the competitions began. Some of the competitions between the spirit teams included the human pyramid, pull-ups, tug-of-war, up-and-over and free throws. Each class’s spirit team competed to earn the most points. Each class also created a banner to support the football team that added to their overall points. In the end, the seniors won first place, with the juniors in second, sophomores in third and freshmen in fourth.
The class advisors were very engaged in spirit week, as they helped their particular class create the banner, encouraged them to dress up for each day and coached the spirit team prior to and during the pep rally. Class of 2019 advisor Rebecca Corcoran believes that spirit week is important to participate in because “it creates a positive school environment and community amongst the grades. It gets students involved who wouldn’t normally get involved in school activities.”
Class of 2020 advisor Caitlin Quinn mentions that “there are so many great things going on at [MHS] and students and staff work so hard throughout the year, and it’s nice to have this time to just stop, think about them and realize how spirited MHS really is. [The school] has a lot of pride, and taking the time to represent ourselves and giving our sports teams and clubs recognition is a great way to show [their] pride.”
Class of 2018 advisor Kate Haskell thinks that “spirit week is a really fun week for the school to get through a difficult time in the year. [She] thinks there are a lot of factors that contribute to the success of Malden High, and [she] believes an important factor is the sense of community within the school, and spirit week helps to amplify that. It really helps unify students and staff and gives people a reason to be excited to come to school.”
