RISING SUN — Rising Sun High School was filled with spirit this past week, as students prepared for their annual Homecoming dance.
Every year, the dance and spirit week are centered around a specific theme. This year it was “The Wizard of Oz.”
Students competed to decorate each hallway with a different aspect of the movie including black and white Kansas, the haunted forest, the land of munchkins, and the Emerald City. Their creativity was on full display as students also had to come up with outfits coordinated to each day’s theme. Monday’s theme was ‘rhyme without a reason.’
“The kids just picked any random rhyming word and paired up with someone and dressed as each thing. That was pretty fun to see,” said Angela Pruss, RSHS counselor and co-advisor for the senior and junior class.
With the junior class in charge of organizing this year’s dance, Pruss and the student council played a big role in facilitating spirit week festivities.
Tuesday was a highly anticipated ‘anything but a backpack’ day. After students attempted to bring their pets or siblings, RSHS Principal James Miro reminded them that nothing alive would fly. So, students got very creative by using laundry baskets, tires, strollers, and really anything you could think of.
“We had a kid with a crab bushel, a fishing net,” Pruss said. “One kid used a dirt bike tire and he stuffed everything vertically in it and it stayed somehow. One kid used a car seat and strapped his books in.”
On Wednesday, students wrapped themselves in bed sheets, pillow cases, and golden ropes for toga day, a highlight of the week for some.
When asked about a stand out memory from the week, senior Lucy Stickney said, “wearing a toga to school…kind of humbling.”
Thursday marked the pep rally at the football stadium, with grades separated by color. The freshmen wore yellow, sophomores wore green, juniors wore red, and seniors wore blue. Each grade competed against the others to win the most points in order to take a lap around the field with the spirit stick.
They had competitions ranging from musical chairs to tug of war. A more unique game each grade participated in was chasing the ‘litter bug’ whose back was strapped with dozens of plastic water bottles to see who could take the most bottles from the other team’s ‘bug’. The sophomore class won with 57 total captured bottles.
After a culminating tug of war match, the seniors took home the spirit stick and did a glory lap around the field to soak in their win.
“I remember when I was a student here doing the same thing so I love seeing the tradition carry on,” biology teacher Hannah Diehl said.
Throughout the pep rally, seniors were acknowledged for their athletic accomplishments and other extracurricular activities, such as band. Two to three students from each grade were also recognized with sashes for their Homecoming Court nominations.
And, of course, students showed their RSHS pride on Friday in anticipation of their Homecoming dance held on Saturday evening. For the dance, there was an outdoor tent with a DJ, while in the cafeteria they offer refreshments and snacks along with a screening of the Wizard of Oz. Cornhole, giant jenga, and other games were available on the patio as well to offer something for everyone and allow the nearly 800 attendees to spread out.
“In the counseling office we don’t always see fun stuff, so to be able to see the kids get into it and have fun and come dressed up to the dance. That’s what highschool is really about,” Pruss said.
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