Jenayah Moreno also contributed to this article
As the Pep Rally and Spirit Week came to a close, students were met with the grueling three weeks before winter break with lots of new units and tests being implemented before the year comes to an end. In hopes of improving their mood, all student council members at Malden High, along with their advisors, came together to make spirit days stick around for students for a little bit longer.
Starting on the first Friday of December, Spirit Fridays were introduced for all students and staff to participate in. Originally Principal Mastrangelo’s idea, Spirit Friday’s are predetermined themed Fridays where students and staff can dress up. Every Friday in December has a specific theme. The themes are Flannel Friday, holiday movie characters, ugly sweaters, and holiday pajamas.
Spirit Week, which is always held during the week of the annual pep rally, is arguably one of the most popular “school spirit” involvements for students. “Mr. Mastrangelo thought that because Spirit Week was so much fun for everyone, it was something that we should be having more often… I think we can all agree that school spirit is something that has been kind of lacking in the last couple of years [because of] the pandemic, so it's a good way to get everyone excited again leading up to the holidays,” said one of the junior advisors, Courtney Braz, who helped come up with the ugly sweater day theme thattook place on December 15th.
As great as this idea is, getting more students to participate and generally involve themselves with school-related activities has been an ongoing issue. “It’s still a new idea so it’s okay if people aren’t participating right away, but we put the four Fridays back-to-back so that people will start to get the hang of it which I believe they will, especially after winter break,” said the class of 2026 President Eldana Abrhame, who later on announced that Spirit Fridays will continue after students return from winter break but will become biweekly and will occur on every Friday of a gold week.
“I want to see at least 90% of people doing it…I want to see more and more people doing it and I know it’s possible if people start spreading the word more to their friends and encouraging them to all dress up together. That way it’s both fun and memorable for everyone,” said Braz.
Rachel Lanza, a sophomore, claims that the start of these consecutive Fridays has motivated her as well as many around her to start participating more. “I feel like I can speak for a lot of people as well:when I first heard about it, I wasn’t really interested, but after seeing the themes, I changed my mind and will definitely participate in the holiday pajama Friday.”
Apart from the participation, Spirit Fridays have been a positive addition to the atmosphere at the school. This was the first time all three student councils had come together and collaborated on something that would be open for everyone to participate in.
“I loved it. I think it was fantastic to have. We all met in Mrs.Votaw’s room and it was nice to have the perspective of the seniors and sophomores and the juniors. Even more so it was nice to see how they all have similar ideas. It's not meant to be competition; we shouldn't be competing against each other—we should be lifting each up as a school,” said Braz, who was one of many people who were thrilled to see all three classes coming together and breaking the tensions that exist between upper and underclassmen.
Moving forward, the councils hope to see a rise in participation and widespread encouragement from everyone to get more people to involve themselves in school-related activities so that traditions and memories can be built between everyone to share forever.
