Rally (at Home

RALLY

(AT HOME)

By Greg Walker - Director of Student Activities

AS THE SCHOOL YEAR BEGAN IN A DISTANCE LEARNING MODEL, STUDENT ACTIVITIES FACED A MAJOR DILEMMA: HOW COULD WE CREATE RALLIES AND ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS TO ENJOY VIRTUALLY, KNOWING THAT THEY HAVE BEEN ANTICIPATING THE LIVE EVENTS? WE KNEW THAT WE WOULD HAVE TO MEET THIS CHALLENGE HEAD ON AND THAT OUR ASB GROUP WOULD NEED TO BE CREATIVE. SO, ASB MEMBERS GOT RIGHT TO WORK.

The first task was the annual Back to School Rally, which traditionally brings all the classes together in the Fien Gym for an exciting start to the year. How could we pull off some excitement and keep people’s interest while they were looking at Zoom? The group started by creating opportunities for students to share videos of things they had done over the summer. Then, they added introductions for new teachers and The Royals, our competitive dance team. Before the rally, in homerooms, there was an opportunity for Kahoot! games, so there was a level of involvement among the students themselves. We kept the whole event short and sweet. The goal was to grab everybody’s

attention, give them something to be excited about, and then let them take some time off viewing a screen. The result was an 18-minute rally video, which was entertaining and gave many the feeling of excitement to begin the year.

But the next task was going to be an even greater mountain to climb… how would we pull off the Spirit Week Rally? Once the elements of Spirit Week were decided, ASB went to work. Media coordinators worked frantically to make sure theme character dances were filmed and submitted, while footage from a class Mario Kart tournament was edited to include commentary to keep students’ interest. ASB members added some video of previous rallies to get everybody’s energy up, and we were able to pull it off! The students were engaged and enthusiastic during the viewing, and it brought out true school spirit, even through an iPad screen. ASB students received feedback that it was

the best experience since Monarch Madness back in March of 2020! A special thanks to the media coordinators who were instrumental in creating the Spirit Week Rally: freshman Tebin Kim, sophomore Kyle Lee, junior Scott Lao, and senior Kateri Olechowski, along with ASB members junior Jonathan Cabael and senior Connor Martin.

Just last month, the planning of special virtual events continued. In December, ASB members created a live Christmas rally to bring some normalcy to our community by continuing an annual tradition. The presentations from Santa and Mrs. Claus (and the accompanying elves) were a welcome surprise to students. In addition to this, ASB members set up a Christmas Lights Drive Through experience for Monarchs. The four-night event allowed students, and their families, to drive through the school’s senior parking lot and see lights, inflatable decorations, and snow. It was truly a joy to share this event with our community, and we hope it created a pleasant beginning to the holiday season.

In an effort to bring the community together in these unprecedented times, there will always be obstacles. But as leaders, our Student Government members persevered through adverse conditions, worked diligently to execute their plans, and produced moments that were truly special for our community.

For Spirit Week, each class picked a movie or TV series to inspire artwork, dress-up days, and choreographed dances. The freshmen picked the TV series “Outer Banks,” while sophomores went with the movie “Indiana Jones,” juniors chose the TV series “Gravity Falls,” and seniors picked the movie “Men in Black”.