Your guide to spirit week 2021.

By Kevin Barry

Staff Writer

Last year due to COVID-19 we saw spirit week in a way we’ve never seen it before, offering some new and old events such as field day, the infamous pizza wars, foodie Friday, and virtual trivia. Obviously not all of those events were able to run last year as they normally would, but now that we’re back in person, spirit week is back on full blast!

After the voting of more than 400 students, this year’s spirit week theme is Disney Plus! The goal of “pre-spirit week” was to prepare the underclassmen for the real thing, but here at Hammond spirit week is something that you don’t know the severity of until it begins. With that being said, let’s get into some of the things that you’ll need to know.

On Friday the 1st, spirit week is getting a little preview with Pajama day and then the following week is when the real celebration begins. Hammond Students voted on the possible days, resulting in the following: Monday (Decades Day), Tuesday (Wacky Tacky Day), Wednesday (Twin Day), Thursday (Theme Day), and finishing it off on Friday (Class Color Day). Class colors are as follows: seniors (Yellow), juniors (Red), sophomores (Black), freshmen (White). Pizza wars is scheduled for Monday the 1st (Same day as Decades Day) and all proceeds will go to help out the sophomore class.

Dress up days weren’t the only thing the Hammond student body voted on. Each grade also voted for their own class theme. Seniors selected Tangled, juniors took Avengers, sophomores took Black Panther, and freshmen decided on Frozen.

As you might have noticed, the goal for everyone’s selection is to try and pick out a movie or TV show that correlates with their class color. The classes will then try to dress up like and decorate their class hallways like the movie.

All of those spirit week events lead up to the football game and ultimately the dance on Saturday, October 9th, 2021. You can get tickets online for 15 dollars or in person during lunch for 20 dollars. The dance will take place from 7:30-10 pm. It will be located in the cafeteria as well as the patio. Unfortunately for our friends that like to be fashionably late, any arrivals past 8 pm will be denied entry to the dance, so make sure to get there on time!

Now, if you’re new to Hammond and you’re used to the lame middle school spirit days, get ready for something you’ve never seen before. In the words of SGA Secretary Jenna Wilson, “Everyone goes all out.”

SGA President Milana Newby says it’s important for “Underclassmen to participate and to push them to participate,” especially since they might not know what to expect.

As we’ve been over, spirit week has several dress-up days apart from the normal spirit week activities. Senior class president Ngun Par says, “It’s not a regular spirit week. For twin day people do full-blown costumes. We’re very extra with everything.”

A common theme this year is everyone’s massive excitement for ‘Battle of the Classes’, where classes compete in fun competitions against each other in an effort to win spirit week. “Spirit week [at Hammond] is a lot different,” says Milana Newby. “We’re known for having the best spirit week and our students want to try and uphold that.”

Because of our wonderful SGA and class councils, Hammond spirit week is able to be back as normal this year. In the words of Milana Newby, the planning has, “Definitely been more difficult, we were very motivated since we didn’t have one last year.” This year “the lounge room will be a game room,” says Jenna Wilson, in an effort to utilize the newfound space of the brand new cafeteria in which HOCO will mainly be held.”

With this year being the first regular spirit week since 2019, be prepared to expect an even more intense version of the infamous week. With the help of the underclassmen and the leadership of the upperclassmen this year’s spirit week could be the best Hammond has ever seen. In the words of Jenna Wilson, “Spirit week is the highlight of the year!”