By Heather Fabritze
Student Life Editor
The Washington College Student Government Association hosted Spirit Week to increase school morale, culminating in a Club Festival and Pep Rally on Saturday.
According to SGA President senior Alex May, Spirit Week, which lasted from Monday, Sept. 5 to Sept. 9., was created to bring students together around campus. Each day featured a different theme that students could dress to match. Monday was “Maroon Monday,” which May hopes will become a weekly tradition even after Spirit Week.
On Tuesday, students wore their favorite sports team jersey, although many student athletes also dressed in tees for their own college teams. Wednesday was class color day, with each year dressing in a different color: freshmen wore red, sophomores wore purple, juniors wore blue, and seniors wore pink.
Thursday was anything but a backpack day, where students carried their books and items in any carrier except their backpacks. Finally, on Friday, it was country or country club day. WC students dressed up in cowboy hats and polos alike.
Then came the end of Spirit Week on Saturday, Sept. 10, leading to Club Festival and a pep rally.
Club Festival was held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Martha Washington Square. Almost all of WC’s student organizations tabled and shared information with interested students, as well as providing GroupMe and email contacts. It also allowed for students to meet club officers prior to formal meetings.
SGA Vice President senior Jonah Nicholson included more requests from students this year in their planning of the event.
“I say it differs from club fair in the fact that it kind of incorporates even more of what the students wanted,” Nicholson said. “And that’s where the updated version comes in. It’s like, okay, what do students want to see?”
Club Festival, unlike previous years’ club fairs, included music by WC Dining Service employee DJ Buck Nasty and a freezer with ice cream and popsicles.
By adding new elements, SGA President senior Alex May and the remainder of the Executive Board hope to reinvent the festival every year.
“I think it’s a very unique perspective…I think it’s gonna be even better [than last year],” May said. “I think every year there’s opportunity for it to grow.”
Model United Nations President sophomore Claire Garretson said that having such high morale during Club Festival helped with table traffic.
“This year’s Club Festival definitely has a lot of good energy going on,” Garretson said. “Every club here is just really excited and really hype, so that’s really good energy to be around.”
Immediately following the Club Festival was SGA’s Pep Rally, held in the Cain Athletic Center. It lasted from 2:30 to 4 p.m. and featured a series of games for students to get involved in. This series included staff versus students dodgeball, a push up competition, musical chairs, WC trivia, and more.
There was also a segment on Greek Games in which three representatives from each of the five Greek life organizations competed against one another in a basketball shooting game.
Winners of each game won various prizes including a light saber and a Nintendo Switch.
Nicholson wanted Spirit Week, Club Fest, and the pep rally to “signal” that campus could continue to host spirit-focused events in the future.
“We’ve been telling each other for a long time that we needed that school spirit,” Nicholson said. “We need an increase in morale. And this is one of the ways that we can do that.”
Photo courtesy of Katie Tack
Photo Caption: Club officers have the opportunity to get to know prospective members and vice versa.