From Monday, November 14, 2022, to Tuesday, November 22, 2022, East’s ever-popular Spirit Week will occur. Spirit Week will conclude with the Spirit Week Dance Competition at 7:00 p.m. on November 22, 2022. During the past few weeks, SGA has worked tirelessly to plan activities and finalize details for the annual event. 

When SGA began preparing for Spirit Week, they first thought of ideas for the most important part of the planning process — the theme. This year’s overall theme is “Reality TV Shows.” As for the grade-specific themes, the seniors are the Bachelor/Bachelorette, the juniors are Dance Moms, the sophomores are Survivor, and the freshmen are America’s Got Talent. 

“The theme was chosen by a vote between SGA Schoolwide and Class Officers after intense debate and discussion. I think we all agree that this theme is going to be incredibly exciting to work with,” student body president Christopher Shin (‘23) said.

Other themes that SGA considered, but did not ultimately end up choosing included “American Cities,” “Children’s Books,” and “School Levels” (high school, middle school, etc.). 

This year, Spirit Week will be filled with new activities as well as annual favorites: the booth decorating (which will be on Friday, November 4, 2022, from 2:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.), the dress-up days, class vs. class volleyball, tug-of-war, the canned food drive, and more. 

Just like in previous years, the classes will be expected to bring in canned foods to donate to the Cherry Hill Food Pantry. Each class will decorate a booth according to their theme to hold the donations. The class with the most donations will win the most Spirit Week points.

While the dress-up days have not been finalized, SGA has many ideas. “[D]ress-up days are going to be the highlight of Spirit Week this year! Here are a few ideas floating around right now: Jersey vs. Jersey Day, Country vs. Country Club Day, Adam Sandler Day, Dress As Your Type Day, College Day, Famous Duos Day, and much more. There will be a total of five dress-up days for Spirit Week,” Shin said.

While Shin is excited about Spirit Week altogether, he is most excited about the Spirit Week Dance. He looks forward to the excitement and energy shared by East students on the night of the dance competition. 

“As a senior, I’ll say that we don’t plan on giving up first place this year,” Shin said.

SGA is hopeful that Spirit Week will be a success this year, filled with school spirit. On October 14, 2022, SGA hosted the “Hocorade” homecoming dance and was blown away by the attendance: over 1,200 students, a new school record.

As exciting as Spirit Week is, it is underestimated how much hard work it takes to plan everything. 

“The hardest part of planning Spirit Week is picking activities that’ll rouse up the spirit of our entire school! We want to organize fun spirit events that everyone can enjoy with a fun taste of class vs. class competition,” said Shin. 

Shin and SGA are fully committed to making Spirit Week the best it can be for East students and are excited for what’s to come.

“I can’t wait to see how spirit week will play out!” Shin said.