Spirit commission has freedom to innovate

April 3, 2019 — by Kaylene Morrison

Due to the flexibility of their responsibilities, spirit commission members are able to devise events from scratch.

Whether it’s designing posters for the Valentine’s Day tailgate or arranging the serving of hot chocolate during finals week, the three-member spirit commission has put a lot of effort into organizing activities for students.

While the spirit commission, made up of senior Kami Cheathan, senior Sophia Shetler and junior Kaitlyn Thompson,  has specific duties to fulfill, it has much more creative freedom than many other commissions, which include dance commission, Homecoming and Spring Fling Commission, rally commission and outreach commission. Additionally, because the commission does not have rigid guidelines to follow when planning events, often times these planned events are too ambitious and must be modified to become logistically feasible for the Leadership class as a whole.

For example, the Halloween Trunk or Treat, where students handed out candy to neighborhood kids from their cars was devised after the original plan to have a haunted house in the Small Gym did not receive enough support from Leadership teacher Matt Torrens and the rest of the class. As a result, the commission decided to organize Trunk or Treat, which turned out to be very successful.

“After a class period of discussion, we planned on getting a bounce house, having fundraising opportunities, and inviting the community to join in,” said Shetler. “We then had to order everything and make sure SHS students knew about it and signed their cars up.”

The commission members also had to plan the logistics of closing the parking lot after school as well as purchase the candy which would be passed out at the event. Prizes for the best decorated car were purchased as well.

“Trunk or treat was our new thing this year,” Shetler said. “It wasn’t on our list of duties, but we just made that happen on our own. ”

Along with planning these somewhat unconventional events, some of spirit commission’s duties include organizing rally tailgates, decorating the quad before events such as football games and ordering school merchandise such as the T-shirts that are shot into the crowd during basketball games.

The spirit commission is also responsible for creating many of the posters displayed around campus, which promote these and other events.

“Whenever there’s an event and you see posters around school, more times than not it’s probably spirit commission that made those posters,” said Thompson.

In addition to creating posters which promote football games and tailgates, spirit commission creates posters promoting events such as dances, basketball quad days, Speak Up For Change, dance team performances, fundraisers and any school event that occurs during tutorial or a closed campus lunch.

In this way, spirit commision has a core mission of being helpful to the other commissions.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize that while maybe one commission planned this event, spirit commission did a lot to market that and help that event,” Cheatham said.

Spirit commission advertises events planned by other commissions through posters as well as its instagram page togaspirit. This cooperation is one of the main highlights of becoming a member of spirit commission, according to Thompson.

“Not only do I get to do the spirit stuff, but it’s a commission that allows me to be a part of really the whole leadership class,” she said.

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