In an effort to boost school morale while maintaining social distance, Student Council collaborated with RedAlert to host a virtual pep rally on October 16, during second block.
Student Council advisor Amy Tarlo says the virtual pep rally was the most “obvious” way to be able to have something.
“We wanted school spirit to still be there but we had to think about safety. Having everybody watching it in second block would probably be the biggest safety measure and then spreading people out was another,” Tarlo said.
Student Council President Emily Pivnichny believes that the pep rally went “very well” considering the circumstances.
“I think the pep rally was the best it could’ve been. I think our efforts shined through. Many neighboring schools don’t even have homecoming events at all, so Souderton is showing out and I’m very proud of what we achieved,” Pivnichny said.
RedAlert staff member Ally Mahoney agrees that the pep rally was “nice to have.”
“I think considering everything going on it was nice to have at least something resembling homecoming week. I think it was good we still did spirit week and the pep rally was a way to bring some more fun into the week,” Mahoney said.
Several spirit days lead to the virtual pep rally, these days included Meme Monday, Camo Tuesday, Decade Wednesday, and Jersey Thursday. Seniors were asked to wear white while underclassmen wore red on Friday.
“StuCo encouraged students to participate in Spirit Week. A new spirit theme we had this year was meme day, and that was something that brought back some joy for the students this year, especially seniors,” Pivnichny said.
RedAlert hosted several mini-games throughout the show that included two students from each grade as well as teachers.
“We had a game where one team member threw cheese balls onto a helmet with shaving cream that the other member was wearing,” Mahoney said, “We also had a pantyhose race, football basket toss, and a tissue box race.”
Student Council also kept the homecoming tradition of crowning homecoming queens.
“We tried to keep as much as we could, so clearly the queens and that whole process,” Tarlo said.
Seniors nominated the queens during fifth block and the whole school voted on the nominees the following week.
Both Tarlo and Pivnichny agreed the normal homecoming festivities were “greatly” missed this year.
“There was always just an electricity in the air before a huge pep rally and the night of the Homecoming dance. High school memories are magical and think we missed out on some of the best moments this year without a traditional homecoming week,” Pivnichny said.
Tarlo says even though Student Council couldn’t host their traditional homecoming pep rally, students were still able to “feel the spirit.”
“There’s something magical when you walk into the pep rally. But with that being said, I am hoping within the classroom kids will feel some spirit and root on their grade levels,” Tarlo said.
Tarlo believes the Student Council couldn’t have accomplished the pep rally without the help of Red Alert.
“Without RedAlert, we wouldn’t have been able to do this and Student Council is still trying to push forward and come up with ideas in a year when everything seems impossible, we are making it possible,” Tarlo said.