America. Construction. Disney. Classy, psychedelic, groovy, and sock-hops.

If these terms are important it could only mean one thing – Cinnaminson High School was the midst of its spirit week.

To start off spirit week, students and staff came into school wearing any bit of red white and blue they could find for “’Merica Monday.” The preceding days were “Transformation Tuesday” (which consisted of construction gear), Walt Disney Wednesday, “Throwback Thursday” (theme day), and as always class color day.

The possible themes this year were the 1600’s, 1920’s, 1950’s, 1960’s, and the 1980’s. The overall theme being “Decades.” The themes chosen by each class (seniors, juniors, sophomores, freshmen respectively) were The 50’s, The 80’s, the 60’s and the roaring 20’s.

This year, spirit week started in confusing fashion. Originally, posters weren’t going to be a part of spirit week due to construction within the school, however that changed when the school year first started. With less time to prepare, everyone involved rushed to get things done.

Junior Alana Picholli was very impressed by the final product of the posters for each class, “especially since we weren’t even going to do them in the first place and with the little notice that every class had.”

The qualifications this year for the posters were a little different. Each grade would have to make a total of ten posters, but only five of them would be judged. The posters also would not relate to sports or clubs this year, but to the individual spirit week days. The creativity of the posters was one of the easiest things to spot. The seniors represented a “Grease” theme, the juniors summarized their theme with a Pac-man class poster, the sophomores showed their artistic talent on their Disney poster, and the freshman were prepared with a touch of lights on theirs.

Commenting on the change in posters this year junior student council adviser Mrs. Caroll said that she, “was excited… I actually like that the posters were tied to the day ‘cause it was different. I think they were very creative.”

When students came to school Monday the entire school was shrouded in red, white and blue for “’Merica Monday.” That morning, spirit week started a little earlier than usual as the senior class gathered in the parking lot for an “American Tailgate.”  The senior class gathered each morning for different themed events prior to the start of school.

Senior Lexi Collela describes the tailgates as, “Awesome! It really brought me closer to the amazing people I’m lucky enough to have in my grade. They were the highlight of my day every single day during spirit week.”

This spirit week in general had an all-around participation high because the days, “were a little easier for the majority of students to dress up. It was more convenient; you didn’t have to go out and purchase a lot of items to participate (perhaps not every student has that possibility),” Mrs. Gill said.

On Tuesday, the entire school became an interactive construction site as students and faculty entered the school wearing hard hats, neon vests, and tool belts (classic construction worker). Some of the workers even began mistaking this day as ‘new recruits day’ thinking they were fellow workers. “A construction worker mistook him [Mr. Hart] for another construction worker and was yelling at him that he can’t park his car in the teacher lot,” Mrs. Gill explained. Mr. Hart responded to the worker with a blunt, “It’s dress up day,” but it took a few responses before he understood that Mr. Hart was a teacher and not a true construction worker.

For ‘Merica Monday, the juniors won with 100% participation in first place. The seniors turned the tide on Transformation Tuesday with 99.35% participation in first place to the 99.25 participation rate of the juniors.

Walt Disney Wednesday offered some of the widest range in creativity with characters coming alive throughout each grade. From the classic princesses to Russell from Up and everything in between around the halls, one may have thought they were in an oddly-placed Disney World. Those who did not dress-up were simply viewed as tourists.

Walt Disney Wednesday was concluded with the seniors in third place and the juniors winning in first place with 93%.

Thursday offered students the chance to show their class individuality. The school was filled with hippies, greasers, gangsters, and funk masters as each grade dressed the part of their theme.  The results after Throwback Thursday left the seniors in second place with 90% and the juniors again in first place with 95%.

With a new perspective on spirit week, new teacher Vicky Sucharski describes it as being, “more intense than when I went here. I’m sure it was [when I went here] but as a homeroom teacher with a junior class… their advisors always come in to make sure everyone’s dressed, and if they [the students] don’t have something they have things made for them to wear. It’s really intense, and fun to see.” Although Sucharski is on the other side as a teacher, she still dresses up and has a good time.

The conclusion of spirit week competitions came at high noon on Friday when the pep rally games began. The competition throughout the whole week was primarily between the juniors and seniors. The freshman and sophomores were there to compete and have a good time, but usually they are not into the competition as much as the upperclassmen. The results of class color day were points assigned in order of grade level (freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior).

The inaudible battle cries of each class as they enter the shaking gymnasium is one of the most ineffable and enjoying feelings. The intensity that always accompanies pep rally is a great thing to look forward to. This year, a few games were added to the usual repertoire, among them were Tire Pull, Walk the Plank, and Student-Teacher Duet.

As usual, not all the games were showcased due to time constraints. Some of them were pulled off the line up because of “safety issues.” This left the seniors and juniors in a tie for first and the sophomores and freshmen in a tie for second. The Tire pull, proved to be a physical competition which made it a possible danger to some students. Max Adams, a competitor in the tire pull, said that his mindset during the event was to, “Pull as hard as I can and get away from this big kid [Senior Richie Rickus].”

Many of the usual events were also skipped, but primarily the newer ones. Junior Mike Ungvarsky has been victim of the Pep Rally’s time constraints in his three years. “[This is my] third year not getting a chance to do my game because the game got cut.” However, Ungvarsky is not complaining, in fact he offers a solution, “… I think one way would be to shorten periods. It’s well organized but you just don’t have enough time cause they don’t make enough time.”

Similarly Jo Guscott offered the idea to have a big breakfast for the school, rather than shortened periods during which not many students can retain an attention span on such an anticipated day.

All grades were surprisingly involved this year, “I was surprised by how close the competition was, not only between the seniors and juniors but the sophomores and freshmen,” Ungvarsky supports.

The Pep rally was, in one student’s opinion, “a great success had a blast, it was kind of loud but I loved it.” Junior Jack Conville said.

At the end of the pep rally, the juniors had won six of the 12 contests and claimed 52 points in all, to the 48 points for the senior class.  Those points added 50 points to the junior class, creating a final tally of 435 points from all the weekly competitions and giving them the vaunted spirit stick.  The seniors finished with 420 points after winning the penny race and the canned good competition to make the final competition and tally very close.

Looking at spirit week, the main importance is the competition it creates for good causes. People mindlessly donate money to charities through the penny race, and donate full meals to families in need through the canned food drive. On a smaller scale the goal of uniting the classes and bringing out tough competition is always achieved. And just remember, however intense rivalries get, it’s not personal, it’s just spirit week.