Spirit Week at PDS!
The annual PDS versus Lawrenceville hockey game is always an eagerly awaited athletic event in the Princeton Day School community. This year, PDS, with the help of the Student Life Committee, helped to make the entire week full of school spirit for everyone. Ms. Mary Sisson, an English teacher in the PDS Upper School and head of Student Life Committee, recounted the reason for arranging Spirit Week: “Instead of trying to do something on just Thursday, why don’t we do an entire week? That’s where it started.” Spirit Week had themes every day; Monday was purple-out, Tuesday was tacky tourists, Wednesday was the zoo, Thursday was blue-out, and Friday was pajama day. Every day, students in the PDS upper school community were able to submit photos of their creative costumes to have the chance to win prizes from the Panther Den, Princeton Day School’s bookstore.
Many of these themes are classics, such as tacky tourists and pajama day, while others are traditions in PDS, like blue-out (which is always a tradition on the day of the hockey game). This year, spirit week was also able to support the hockey team’s game against Notre Dame High School dedicated to Cystic Fibrosis. In honor of this, Student Life Committee arranged a purple-out for Monday’s theme. Ms. Sisson described the purple-out, saying, “To see everyone dressing up not just for Spirit Week but also for a specific cause was really powerful to me.” Spirit Week featured not only a variety of enjoyable themes, but it also helped support a worthy cause and raise awareness about Cystic Fibrosis in a memorable way.
The whole Upper School was able to take part in this event, and each day brought a new variety of unique and funny costumes. Alex Neumann, senior at PDS and member of Student Life Committee, commented on his favorite costume of the week: “My favorite was Elaynah Jamal in a shark costume on the zoo day. I looked down the hallway, and I saw her in this massive shark costume that covered her entire body!” While some “went big” on their costumes, everyone in the PDS community could feel the vibe of school spirit in the halls during this week.
Spirit Week gave the opportunity for students to showcase their school spirit and support the athletic teams of PDS in an entertaining and engaging way. It helped support not only the boys’ hockey team but the other winter athletic teams as they also competed in big games during Spirit Week. Ms. Sisson said, “This week has really called attention to the fact that we have a shared experience. We can showcase what we share.” Although every member of the PDS Upper School has unique talents and interests, Spirit Week was a new way to unite the community and support the boys’ hockey team before they fought hard against Lawrenceville. In these long, cold days of winter, Spirit Week successfully lifted everyone’s spirits!
