What was supposed to be the Winter Fest mid year turned into the Earth day celebration that The Sustainablity Club and The Student Athletic Leadership Team (S.A.L.T) hopes turns out to be a lasting tradition.
This past Earth Day (April 22nd), the ORHS Sustainability Club and S.A.L.T held the first ever Earth Day pep rally. S.A.L.T planned the rally part of the day while the sustainability club planned the events after. The academic day was cut short to make time for the pep rally and Earth-related activities to follow.The classes competed in six activities consisting of a pie eating contest, dizzy bat race, lacrosse shoot out, relay race, ping pong, and three legged race. Following these activities, students dispersed to the four activities planned for the rest of the day including cooking decorating, a documentary in the auditorium, clothing swap, and decorating signs for a climate rally after school. There was a large crowd around the cookie table at all times deeming it a big hit.
Three seniors, Jen Newick, Bryce Harmon, and Jayson Blaisdell were the MCs for the pep rally. Their job was to lead the events and get the crowd involved in the activities. However, some attendees of the event said it was hard to hear the hosts. “We could not hear a lot of what they had to say but I imagine it was very good,” said Brendan Sheehan (‘22). Sheehan did go on to say he was still very excited about the cookie decorating event after the rally.
The rally ended in a tie between the seniors, juniors, and sophomores. The Sustainability Club said a few closing statements thanking their contributors.The Sustainability Club put lots of work into the events and has been working on this day since the beginning of the year. “We have been planning this since November,” said Sustainability Club member Kata Discoe (22’).
S.A.L.T club member Waverly Oake (23’) spoke about the groups part in the rally “S.A.L.T decided to plan the pep rally because we want to bring back school spirit since we couldn’t do any of it last year,” explained Oake. The group collaborated with the sustainablity club to bring this event to the school. Oake went on to say “we hope this is a lasting tradition because we want to bring the school together as much as possible.”
Even though the school traditionally has a pep rally at the beginning of the year, the club thought this would be another great tradition to start.“We thought it was a good opportunity because Earth day ended up being on a Friday and it was a good way to ease into vacation but also raise awareness for sustainability,” continued Discoe. Hopefully, with the work of underclassman club members, the rally will become a continuing tradition at ORHS.
The rally ended the long week before the awaited April vacation. It brought some fun into the last day which would usually be a very long day for most students. It was not only a fun way to end the week, but it also brought awareness to Earth Day. “I wouldn’t have known it was Earth Day if we didn’t have the pep rally,” confessed Josh Nicols (22’).
When asked if we should do the pep rally again next year he responded, “I think it is an option that could be taken advantage of, just with better planning.” He went on to explain the types of planning, suggesting, “getting some more participation would be nice. I feel like no one participated.”
Caruccio thought the day was fun and was a great way to celebrate Earth Day but feels the event was sort of thrown together quickly. Overall, the day went well besides some bumps in the road along the way like not being able to hear the MCs, the event has a lot of potential to be a long lasting tradition at the high school.