By: Sonia Hasko and Sruthi Manish, Staff Writers
On October 29, hall decorating kicked off Townsend Harris’ annual spirit week. Each grade decorated their own respective floor according to themes selected by the students in each grade. Members of the THHS faculty judged the decorations and declared the seniors the winners of the competition, who were followed by the sophomores, the juniors, and then the freshmen.
The freshmen did a galaxy theme, The Lion King was the sophomore theme, the juniors did Moana, and the seniors’ theme was “Sen19r Snapchat Memories.” The grades’ themes corresponded to each grade’s specific color, which all students were asked to wear on Tuesday, October 30 to show their THHS pride. The colors in the order of ascending grades were black, orange, blue, and yellow. Freshman-Sophomore Class President Sharon Li said, “I sent out a form [to submit theme ideas] to the grades and after giving them several days, I closed the form.” Afterward, the grade leaders narrowed down the freshman and sophomore themes to between five and eight choices, and then sent out another form asking the freshmen and sophomores to vote on the final theme. Junior Class President Annlin Su added, “We [the grade leaders] wanted to make sure that we were really taking into consideration [what] the junior class wants or likes.”
Coordinator of Student Activities Sarah Loew explained the judging process, saying, “The faculty were given score cards and they rated each hallway on things like color, artistry, and group effort.” The final results were a product of specific criteria that took every aspect of the hallways into consideration. English teacher Judy Biener said, “I really enjoyed all the photos of the seniors on the third floor” and found the halls “festive” in contrast to decorations from previous years.
Wednesday, October 31 was Halloween, followed by Twin Day on Thursday. Founder’s Day on Friday wrapped up spirit week.
Much of Townsend’s student body participated in spirit week, whether that meant dressing up or contributing time after school to decorate the halls. Freshman Sai Choudari found that decorating the halls “was a fun way to meet new people and interact with [her] friends outside of school work or projects.” She thinks that spirit week could be further enriched by adding a meme day, but recognizes the experience as a memorable part of THHS.
Yet, some students simply participated for the credit they would receive. Sophomore Agathe Catechis said that she did hall decorating for citizenship, a statement that parallels many students’ experiences due to the large number of teachers who grade their students based on their involvement in school activities. This requirement resulted in a great outcome when it came to student participation.
Spirit week and hall decorating were tremendously successful. As Ms. Biener put it, “The hallways looked particularly great this year.”
