A Spirited Celebration for Keystone’s 10th Anniversary
Last week, visitors to Keystone were in for quite the surprise. Had you come to school on Monday expecting to see students sharply dressed in their school uniforms, you would have been shocked to see some fashionable rockstars parading through the halls. What was the occasion for such a stunning display? Although it may have looked like students were trying to recreate the environment of Wembley Stadium from the famous Live Aid concert of 1985, it turns out the motivation for this event was far closer to home. This was the first day of Keystone Spirit Week, an annual tradition organized by the High School Student Council. Throughout the week, students and staff all had a blast dressing up for all sorts of themes and showing off their school spirit!
Although Spirit Week is always a school favorite, this year’s event was undoubtedly special! As this year marks Keystone’s 10th anniversary, the student council wanted to do something extra fun to mark the occasion. With the number 10 in mind, the members of the student council immediately came up with the idea of celebrating the “Keystone Decade” this year, taking inspiration from different decades for the themes of each day. As is tradition, each day was also assigned one of the Keystone Houses to celebrate our House spirit as well.
While no massive rock concerts took place Monday, a celebration representing House of Metal did bring quite a crowd. If the flashy 80’s fashion inspired by classic movies and bands wasn’t fun enough, students could go on a bit of a scavenger hunt during the breaks between their classes, finding vintage posters and band stickers scattered throughout the hallways. Students who found the most stickers could submit them to the Student Council for the chance to win a takeout pass! All the while, favorite 80’s hits played for extra entertainment. This was truly an electric way to celebrate the spirit of perseverance and rebellion.
After the loudness of Monday’s 80’s extravaganza quieted down, Tuesday brought a more discreet and personal celebration of growth and newly established order. Representing the house of wood, this day featured a splash of green and a dash of 90’s inspiration. Students got to show off their own personal growth and commemorate the growth of Keystone over the last decade. Additionally, visitors to the MS Library could add on to the tree on Lego wall there, representing our collective growth and collaboration.
This cooperative project of Lego building flowed perfectly like a stream into Wednesday’s Day of Water. Representing the 2000’s and the Olympic spirit brought by these years, inclusiveness was the meaning behind the Day of Water. Celebrating the diversity of cultures found at Keystone, students could dress up in clothing related to their culture or clothing that represented the 00’s. As this decade was also the time of childhood for many Keystone Secondary School students, childhood memory themed games took place on the first floor, and a photo booth was set up to capture the memories.
The 2010’s came in scorching hot on Thursday with the Day of Fire. Inspired by the technological explosion of the 10’s the theme of the day was innovation and the spirit behind the day was energy, a perfect day to represent the House of Fire. Students dressed in fashion representing the white-hot intensity of technological innovation, with outfits inspired by popular tech companies and cyberpunk aesthetic. In addition to popular movie and game posters spread around the building and picture taking, the Student Council also organized a trivia challenge with prizes awaiting the top students.
Finally, Friday brought us back to the present with the Day of Earth. As Earth is the start of all life and growth, it was chosen to be the last day of the week. This turned out to be a great choice, as the House of Earth was facing off with the House of Wood for the final basketball game in the House Cup on Friday. Although Wood eventually came out victorious with an impressive undefeated run throughout the tournament, every House was a winner thanks to the combined spirit and excitement found during Spirit Week. After the game, students and staff headed down to the Pac Pavilion for a dazzling finale to Spirit Week with the Spirit Week Performance. Student groups took to the stage to sing, dance, and play music, while the audience joined in on the fun. Overall, the performance was the perfect capstone for a week filled with fun and school spirit.
With so much excitement going on during Spirit Week, organizing this event was no small task. Amy Wang, one of the presidents of the High School Student Council, explains that the council started planning before school had even started for the year. “We started planning very early in the summer holiday. The biggest challenges were the clash between Spirit Week planning and different academic tasks so that some of the works were done in a rush, like the flag design for the road lamps, but Ms. Naomi from the marketing team helped us so much,” Amy describes. Balancing academics and School Council tasks is quite the challenge, but the group was able to collaborate to create a truly magical Spirit Week.
Although there were almost too many highlights during the week to count, Amy stated a few things that really stood out. The performance at the end of the week was likely at the top of many students list of favorite Spirit Week moments. “Over 30 performers from Grade 12 participated in the dance?Groove Back?and all of the audience enjoyed it, following the moves of the performers. Everyone turned on their flashlight and formed a sky of lights during the song?Yellow?performed by the band?Bubble Tea on the piano,” Amy describes. Whether it was the Earth Day performance, dressing up for Spirit Week, competing or cheering on the basketball teams in the House Cup, or just soaking in all the magic of the different decades displayed during the week, students and staff all had a blast showing off their Keystone spirit!
