At Ripon High there is never a lack of spirit. There will always be weeks full of dress up days and fun, and Winterfest Week is exactly that! Winterfest Court nominees were announced on Jan. 17, and the dress up week started from Jan. 21 – 24.
The dress up days were according to the theme of Winterfest which was, Ripon High Travels the World. Each class chose a well known city to represent them. For instance, Athens, Greece was chosen by the freshmen, Los Angeles, Calif. picked by the sophomores, the juniors chose Paris, France and lastly the seniors picked New York City, New York.
The first dress up day for Athens, Greece had many options, they could dress up as if they were in ancient Greece. This could be sandals, flowy dress, robes, animal print, gold jewelry or freshmen shirts or class color orange. Many dressed up as ancient Greeks, the court had many warriors and goddesses. The classes also decorated windows according to their city and were displayed for everyone to see.
Day two allowed people to dress up as their favorite celebrity or character, class color blue or pajamas for the morning after the Oscars, as the city was Los Angeles, Calif. This day was also the final voting day for spirit champions!
The city of Paris, France was the theme for the third day. Students could wear formal attire and jewelry, stripes and patterns or class color yellow. Decorated class shopping carts were also displayed at the front of the school.
The last dress up day revolved around New York City. Dress up options were senior class merch, tacky t-shirt, class color green or red and white spirit. Friday was also very fun as it was also anything but a backpack! Many students got really creative with their backpacks for the day!
Spirit champions were announced Thursday Jan. 23. at the boys basketball game against Escalon High. The court nominees were called down at halftime and lined up on the red carpet. The crowd added a drumroll for suspense and finally senior Eric Guevara and freshman, Allie Grussing were awarded spirit champions!
When asked how she felt standing in front of the crowd during halftime Grussing stated, “I was really scared, I have a lot of social anxiety but in the process I got out of my comfort zone and met a lot of new people.”
Guevara was excited and shocked to even have been nominated because he had never thought to be getting recognition in all his 4 years he’s been attending RHS.
“I was in disbelief, the energy from the student section was very encouraging and is a moment I will remember forever,” Guevara states.
The spirit champions and the nominees are people who aren’t afraid to show school spirit. They dress up and are involved to take advantage of the opportunities to have enjoyable memories during their high school years. Winning is always a shock but will always be memorable.
“I felt shocked but also really excited at the same time, it was a really great experience,” Grussing expressed.
“Being chosen as spirit champion was a surreal moment. I remember being told “you deserve it” by some of my peers although I felt overwhelmed by the praise,” Guevara states when asked how he felt winning.
Dressing up may seem silly or embarrassing to some and to those who need some words of encouragement, Grussing wanted to add, “Don’t worry about those people that think it’s silly, just don’t think about them, do it, get out there and you’ll have fun!”
Winterfest Week was full of exciting dress up days and events. Congratulations to the court nominees and our spirit champions!
