The week before finals, dubbed “Snowcoming,” is a morale booster for the student body. This year, Snowcoming featured a week of dress-up days and a decorated school. There was also a food drive, organized by NHS and the student council.
The school is decorated with normal holiday decor, but hallways also feature snowflakes made by elementary children in the area.
Some of the student council members went to the schools, demonstrating how to make the coffee-filter snowflakes to the kids.
“All the kids were super excited that they [the snowflakes] were going to be hung up in the high school,” senior Kinsley Braten said. “I know they wanted to look for theirs the next time they visited the high school.”
Along with the fun addition to the high school, the activity gives responsible high-schoolers the ability to influence the kids in a good way and involve them in a high school activity.
“I think it’s good for them to work with older kids,” Braten said. “… having high school kids come in made them super excited.”
Some high school students still recall when they made the snowflakes in elementary, demonstrating the impact of the activity.
The dress-up days consisted of pajamas, holiday characters, ugly sweaters, family photos, and an escape from the winter theme.
“I only did the family photo dress-up day with all my friends,” senior Jeremy Harms said. “[but] I thought they [the dress-up days] were good.”
Harms matched four of his friends. They were all wearing the same ugly sweater over a white collared shirt.
“I’ve seen a lot of students participating in the dress-up days,” student council advisor Mrs. JoEllen Varian said. “I think everybody’s had fun with that.”
Looking forward to next year, there were a few ideas from some of the students.
“I think that it would have made more sense to have Snowcoming on finals week, rather than the week before finals,” sophomore Katarina Reitz said. “Because it would have reduced stress on finals.”
She also had thoughts about the dress-up days.
“I think that it was fun, but… there wasn’t really a good reason to dress up,” Reitz said. “It kinda seemed pointless if there wasn’t a game or dance.”
Mrs. Varian, a student council advisor and English teacher, also had some ideas.
“I don’t know if maybe we could find some more engaging things to do… during the school day,” Mrs. Varian said. “I think if we could generate some ideas going forward with that, that would be better. ”
Overall, most students enjoyed a change from the lackluster drudge that tends to happen at the end of the semester.
