Pandalympics, a play on the word Olympics, was the theme chosen for the 2011 Spirit Week. The original Olympic motto, “Faster, Higher, Stronger”, was used to represent Padua’s spirit.
Tuesday was USA day at Padua. Everyone dressed up their uniforms with pride and spirit for the USA. At lunch, the Student Council staff gave away red or blue bracelets that were either decorated stars or the words, USA.
Wednesday was Nationality day. Everyone added symbols of their heritage to their uniforms. At lunch, the Student Council surprised the students again by giving away key chains that had flags of countries from all over the world.
On Thursday, Padua had Class Colors day. Everyone from each class got to dress down in their class colors. Freshman wore green, sophomores wore blue, juniors wore red and seniors wore yellow. Many girls wore the Student Council’s Spirit Day t-shirt and some girls even came in costumes. Everyone was festive and ready for the Spirit Week assembly.
Friday was the last day of Spirit Week. Everyone got to dress down in their favorite sports teams’ colors or jerseys. Some people also dressed down in Padua gear. Friday was a great end to a fun week.
At the beginning of Spirit Week, each grade was given the task of using the class’ color to decorate their staircase in anyway they wanted to. The seniors’ themes were “Despicable Me” and bananas. The juniors picked “Strawberry Fields Forever” and strawberry shortcakes as their themes. The sophomores were creative with their theme and went under the sea. The freshmen stayed true to their class color and chose a theme of “everything green.” Everyone had creative and fun ideas for their staircases.
Spirit Assembly
There was a wave of green, blue, red, and gold on Thursday at the spirit assembly. The fun started when the cheerleaders came on the floor, dancing and cheering, while everyone in the stands was excitedly cheering along with them, anxious for the activities to begin. The “class-cots” then ran out: the freshmen as green grapes, the sophomores as a blue smurf, the juniors as Strawberry Shortcake, and the seniors as a combination of bananas, the golden snitch, and a minion from the movie Despicable Me. Representing the faculty was Mrs. Manelski who ran out as a skier. Then, the games began starting with the Best Toga Contest, where three members from each class were given three minutes to make a toga out of random fabrics. The next game was Passing Balloons, in which students from each class had to pass a balloon to each other using only their elbows. After the fabulous high-energy performance, three members from each class were armed with hairspray, colored spray, foam, and other various objects as they worked a classmate’s hair into a colorful torch. After an intense game of musical chairs, the seniors took the lead, having won all the games played so far. To renew the crowd’s energy, the dance team preformed to the song, “Drummer Boy” by Justin Bieber. Senior members of the dance team were honored by performing a special dance segment. The final competition of the day was a fast-paced relay race with pilates balls and crab walking. The exciting 2011 spirit assembly came to a close with the seniors winning all of the games. All in all, this year’s assembly was a great success.
