Neverending spirit

Henry Chappell, sports editor| November 11, 2020

The KHS senior class leaders have kept trying to find a plan to still maintain the spirit for Turkey Day at KHS.

There may not be any large gym pep rallies, funny senior skits, or Dr. Havener ringing the Frisco Bell in the Denver Miller arena. But this dreaded virus has not stopped KHS from having the traditional spirit week. To have a normal spirit week, the senior class officers at KHS have had to jump through many hoops to try to make the normal Turkey Day activities that happen around Turkey Day the same as usual.

“Trying to find times for when we can do Zooms and trying to text and figure out logistics over GroupMe and Zoom is a little more difficult than meeting in person and talking stuff out,” Katie McSwain senior class president said. “It definitely won’t look the same because there won’t be anything where we get to have any big gatherings, so we won’t be able to decorate our hallways or anything, but we’re still trying to find ways to have the same school spirit around Turkey Day.”

One way McSwain says KHS is trying to keep up that same Turkey Day spirit is by including everyone in the spirit activities, whether that be virtually or in-person, or in-person at KHS. These activities include students wearing Kirkwood-themed and Turkey Day-themed shirts. The senior class officers also plan to crown the Friendship Dance king and queen at the Turkey Day game at Webster Groves. Also, there will be a virtual chili bowl taking place, which is a Turkey Day favorite for Atticus McDowell, freshman.

“The chili bowl has always been my favorite Turkey Day activity because first of all there’s the free food, but also I get to hang out and have a good time with my friends,” McDowell said. “It also is a good spirit activity just to get [hyped up] for the game beforehand.”

Another reason this year’s Turkey day buildup is different for KHS is the preparation. According to McSwain, setting up the activities has involved always having multiple plans in place.

“We essentially had three plans for every idea that we had, so we would start with an all virtual plan, some sort of middle ground plan where there’s a virtual component and an in-person component,” McSwain said. “Then, we would have our ideal ‘if we could do whatever we wanted idea,’ so coming up with everything times three with definitely a lot more work was something that was essential to making sure we had some sort of plan for this year.”

Senior class principal Jessica Vehlewald said that the senior class has been working on plans for Turkey Day activities since this previous summer. She also mentioned that they have tried to tweak certain events in order to fit the CDC guidelines but still capture the spirit of the rivalry of Turkey Day.

“They’ve really done a great job on their proposals trying to maintain and capture KHS unity, while also looking outside the box on how we might be able to accomplish some old traditions and create some new traditions leading up to turkey day,” Vehlewald said. “They’ve been working on this process since this summer, and with these plans [they] have still been able to maintain the comradery between them.”