FCHS celebrated their winter Spirit week this year on March 4-8. The days were as follows:

• March 4: Cozy Up With a Good Book (wear your comfiest PJs)
• March 5: ”Hey Read My Shirt” (wear a graphic tee with words on it)
• March 6: Show off your future school or job by wearing a shirt with a college/university logo or an outfit relating to your dream profession.
• March 7: Book Character day (dress as your favorite book character)
• March 8: Genre Day/Black Out (come as your favorite book genre plus wear black for the pep rally.

Spirit weeks are planned by the SGA, but the planning process doesn’t always go smoothly.

“The SGA had actually planned an entirely different spirit week for the same week as Read Across America,” said SGA president and senior Jamie Rodriguez. “We were not made aware of the fact that the school district wanted us to advertise their spirit week until Mrs. [Ann] Jennings, bless her heart, let us know about it. The only day we were allowed to keep the same was ‘Black Out’, as we had already planned our pep rally,” she noted.

“It was definitely frustrating to have to take down all of the advertisements for the spirit week we had planned and gotten approved in advance, especially because we were tasked with advertising and running the Read Across America one last minute,” said Rodriguez. “But, I do not hold anything against the librarians, as I do not think the lack of communication was their fault. They were just doing their jobs,” she added.

Despite the short notice and relative lack of planning, SGA advertised the Read Across America Spirit Week to the student body, with varied success across the grades. Based on the numbers, Blackout Day had the most participation, followed by PJ Day.

“I think that it went well from an SGA perspective. We had a lot of creative games and participation in the Black Out theme. A good indicator of a successful pep rally is that the 8th graders were into it. From the perspective of a senior, the class of 2024 had very little participation or energy, which was sad for a final pep rally. I do believe the juniors deserved the spirit stick,” said Rodriguez.

For more information on FCHS’s Read Across America Week activities, check out this article on the Fluco Beat.