By Lauren Jun and Julia Wojtkowski, Staff Writer and Copy Editor
On October 28, students, clad in their comfiest pajamas, kicked off spirit week with hall decorating. Each grade participated in this unique THHS tradition by decorating their respective floor based on a theme voted on by students. This year, bright yellow sunflowers dot the walls of the freshman floor; characters and building blocks swarm the sophomores’ green Minecraft-themed hall; blinking purple lights and tapestries from Disney’s Aladdin line the junior hallway; and an abundance of blue Crocs and Hydroflasks cover the staircases of the seniors’ VSCO-themed floor.
Coordinator of Student Activities Sarah Loew explained the judging process, saying, “The faculty are the judges for hallway decorating. They score the hallways on categories such as theme, use of color, and grade representation; this year we also added sustainability. [The faculty] walk around every hallway on the two days after hall decorating. All scores must be submitted on Wednesday at 3 pm.” These scores are later tallied up and announced on Thursday during 9th band; the winning grade of 2019 Hall Decorating was revealed to be the Class of 2021, whose Aladdin-themed hallway impressed THHS faculty the most.
“The junior grade tried really, really hard this year, and Sharon, our grade leader and president, had a lot of ambitious ideas for our hallway,” said junior Francesca Manabat. “[The] sleepless nights spent working on the hallway really paid off in the end… [I’m] proud of what [the juniors] put together.”
Junior Fabiha Samiha added, “After all the preparations that we have done, all the hard work, countless days of painting, cutting, making cranes and everything else was so worth it. We all worked so hard on it together after school, standing on top of chairs, using rulers to put up streamers on top of the walls; I feel like the effort that we put in together was what made it possible.”
Senior John Pabololot recognizes the juniors’ hard work, expressing “mixed feelings” about the seniors’ loss. However, Ms. Loew emphasized that the main objective of hallway decorating is to “bond with your grade and meet new people, make new friendships, and discover that you can do a lot more as a team than an individual.”
After dressing their hallways, THHS students proudly represented their hard work on grade color day, when each grade wore the color that matched their respective hallway. Following this day was Meme day, Halloween, and finally, Twin day.
Ms. Loew encourages students to participate in Spirit Week. “When you see what everyone’s [Halloween] costumes are like, you really get to know each other, and it takes down a lot of the barriers that otherwise exist.” she said. “It helps to increase the communication and teamwork and spirit that we have in our school.”
Photo courtesy of Katrina Dydzuhn
