Though last week’s annual Charity Week at South was interrupted by a slew of snow days-off, many students still found the importance of participation in their school’s spirit-filled events in the face of challenges.

“It’s a struggle to get people involved,” chair of Charity Week Joey Burgoyne ’20 said. “You have those people who think they’re too cool for school.”

For Burgoyne, Charity Week was an opportunity to take on a leadership role in Student Association and help a good cause.

“I was part of (the Charity Week committee) last year, though I just wasn’t chairing it, and I saw the way everyone was putting it together,” Burgoyne said. “I was looking for a step up in SA and I thought this would be good because I was familiar with it.”

According to Zack Ashkar ’20, it’s harder to have a lot of school spirit in high school versus middle school, but not impossible.

“There are more people that you have to bring together when there are four instead of three grades,” Ashkar said. “But the school rivalries help bring people together.”

Austin Detweiler ’21 stressed the importance of getting students involved who aren’t naturally inclined to do so.

“ I met more people who participated in school activities,” Detweiler said. “So I started going to them a lot more than I did before.”

South has a lot to be proud of, according to Detweiler, but also needs the support of its student body.

“Having school spirit makes our school look better,” Detweiler said. “Football games are more fun when the student sections are cheering on the team.”

Both Ashkar and Burgoyne noted how important it is to publicize everything at South in order to raise attendance at events like Mr. Blue Devil or a basketball game.

“We can put more incentives on it, instead of just saying ‘tomorrow’s purple day,’” Burgoyne said. “Then students have a reason to show up.”

Detweiler not only thinks that South has certain perks as a school, but that the students at South help create a place where it’s easy to have school-spirit.

“There’s a lot of great things about our school that make it unique,” Detweiler said. “The students do a lot for the school in high school so it’s easy to be proud of your classmates doing cool things.”