Spring Spirit Week features competition, dress changes
Photo by Holly Honda
Juniors form a barrel over Kahiau Luat-Hueu who is dressed as a bodyboarder on Tuesday, Sports Day. Spirit week was filled with many dress-up days.
Kamehameha Schools Maui Warriors challenged each other and dressed up during Spring Spirit Week Jan. 30 to Feb. 3 to show their spirit.
The week was originally planned to have movie-based, which would include dress-up days based on films such as Harry Potter, Divergent, The Hunger Games, and Percy Jackson. However, after some initial reactions about this idea, the Associated Students of Kamehameha Schools Maui officers decided to change the dress-up themes.
Mrs. Naomi Ashman, Student Activities Coordinator, described these new dress-up days as simpler than other dress-up days from previous years.
Some students liked the original days better. Sophomore Sherri Nagamine said, “Dressing up in character or a costume would be cool. It would be more difficult, but it would make the dress-up more interesting.”
On the other hand, many felt that the simpler days increased participation. Due to the participation points being reported in two different formats, a comparison of the reported points for Homecoming Week and Spring Spirit Week was not possible, but both spirit weeks showed particpation above 1300 students for all days combined.
The week started with Pajama Day. Many students came dressed comfortably in their pajamas and watched the various classes’ dance crews perform their best dance moves in the Kamehameha’s Best Dance Crew competition and their bands bring the heat in the Battle of the Bands.
Junior Chenoa ʻĀina said, “My favorite day was Pajama Day because it’s been really cold lately, and I got to come to school in warm clothes”.
Sports Day was held on Tuesday, and the students wore their favorite sports gear and watched the dodgeball tournament during lunch.
On Wacky Wednesday, students came to school in their most wacky outfits and watched the fleet ball tournament during lunch.
Freshman Kialoa Rano said that he liked the dress-up days because they “ let the freshmen and the rest of the classes show their spirit, and we…liked being able to get out of dress code.”
There were many doubles around campus as students participated on Twin Thursday. Some doubles perfectly matched, while others matched by wearing the same color as their twin.
The classes wore their class shirts on Friday, with the freshmen in gray, sophomores in green, juniors with purple, and the seniors wearing red. All the classes came together to watch their classes compete in the gutter ball tournament.
“It was very divided. Every day there were students who dressed, and every day there were students who wore what they were supposed to wear, and everyday there were students who ‘pushed the envelope,’ but I thought it went well,” Mrs. Ashman said.
Overall, although some students would have preferred the original dress-up days, many others enjoyed the simpler ones and the chance it gave them to show off their spirit.
After a controviersial result to the gutterball tournament and a do-over last week, in the end, the sophomores won (4250 points), the seniors came in second (4125), the freshmen came in third (3500), and the juniors came in fourth (3250).
The classes earned points by not only dressing up and participating in the various activities, but also by donating items such as blankets, books, movies, and video games to junior Kimani Fernandez-Roy as part of her senior project to collect items to donate to families affected by cancer.
