From May 11th to May 15th during our eighth week of quarantine and being out of school, SWHS held its first virtual spirit week. This spirit week consisted of five days of spirit in which students would dress according to the theme that specific day, and then send pictures to the Student Council on instagram (@swhsstudentcouncil). These pictures were soon posted onto the student council’s instagram to show off South Windsor students’ school spirit. 

The week started off with college wear on Monday, where seniors wore merchandise from the school they would be attending next year, and everyone else just wearing any type of college clothing. Tuesday followed up with Hawaiian day or just summer in general, with many students wearing leis and hawaiian shirts. Next was Pajama day on Wednesday, which is probably what SWHS students have already been doing, so it was not difficult for students to participate. Thursday was USA day with students repping their country with red, white, and blue. Lastly, Friday wrapped up the week with Bobcat gear day and students wearing any kind of SWHS clothing that they had. 

While not as many people participated as they would if we were actually going to school, there were a few people that continuously participated every day for the whole week. Those two students were freshman, Elaina Pasqualini, and junior, Meghna Mazumdar. Both girls only had good things to say about the virtual spirit week. Pasqualini states “I love spirit week. When we’re in school I love to go all out to show my school spirit. I had a lot of fun doing it at home too!” Mazdumar continues on saying “it was a nice way to stay engaged with the school community. It also helped give me the motivation to do something different from my normal routine of just doing school work in pjs all day.”

After speaking to the South Windsor’s Student Council on instagram, they mentioned that they decided to hold a spirit week online because “It was during the time we would have our regular spirit week, and we wanted to give the students a little sense of what school would look like [at this time]. We also know that many students enjoy sharing their spirit.” 

With this in mind, having this virtual spirit week was a great idea and it definitely gave students a feel of what school would be like if not for COVID-19. Overall, students have been enjoying this past week and hope that more things like this keep occurring so that everyone can still feel connected as a community and a school.