Students at Lewis-Palmer High School prepared for Snowball, the school’s winter dance, by dressing up for the allotted days of spirit week. Each day was dedicated to a new theme in efforts to get the student body excited for Saturday’s dance.

Monday’s spirit day kicked off the week with pajama day. Pajama day is a tradition for Lewis-Palmer High School, being held on almost every Monday of every spirit week. Generally, this day has the highest number of participants as students from every grade come to school dressed in their favorite pajamas. From onesies to slippers, Lewis-Palmer High has seen a variety of bedtime apparel.

“PJ day is just a custom. It’s there every time I come back. I’ve been here for four years and we’ve had PJ day for every single spirit week. Not having it [homecoming week this year] put a hole in my heart. I was just so upset,” Arianna Hartzler, 12, said.

Students came to school in firefighter-themed apparel on Tuesday. The students of STUCO (Lewis-Palmer’s Student Council) decided that every grade should have a different firefighter-related costume to wear. The freshmen dressed up as fire hydrants; the sophomores dressed up as fire; the juniors dressed up as dalmatians; and the seniors dressed up as firefighters. While many students found the day difficult to dress for, the majority of the student body was entertained with the results of the costumes.

Wednesday was yet another favorite as students came to school in flannel shirts to represent Lumberjack Day. In the social studies pod that morning, students joined their fellow classmates for a pancake and bacon breakfast.

Student council developed a new spirit day for Thursday called Mathletes vs. Athletes Day. On this day, students were faced with the difficult decision of dressing as either a nerd or an athlete. Many of the school’s athletes dressed up as geeks, while many of the bookish students dressed in gear from their favorite sports teams.

Nicole Wisniewski, 12, said, “I really liked the Mathletes vs. Athletes Day. I thought it was really entertaining to see a lot of the jocks dressed as nerds and the more kinda geeky kids dressed up in like sweatshirts from college sports teams and such. Some people really went all out with nerd glasses and suspenders or football jerseys.”

Stoplight Day concluded the spirit week for the Lewis-Palmer Rangers. The logic behind this day was based on the relationship statuses of those students attending Snowball. Those who had a date and were “taken” wore the color red; yellow was denoted to those who classified their status as “it’s complicated;” and green was given to the students who were not taking a date to the dance and were, therefore, “single.”

As an incentive for student participation during the spirit week, students received punch cards that were hole-punched for every spirit day they participated in. If the card was completely punched by Friday, the card was placed into a drawing for the chance to win prizes such as ranger gear and a free ticket to Snowball.

“I think this week was pretty fun. This one was really creative. Some days people were confused on just because usually we do more simple days and this time we got a little more complicated. I think once people understood it, they were a lot more into it,” Billy Cook, 11, said.

With the combined efforts of all the students representing their grade through Student Council, the student body was able to participate in a spirit week that many will hopefully remember. The five separate days, designed to excite the student body for Snowball, allowed kids to dress in a range of costumes correlating with the day. Overall, it was a widespread display of school spirit by the students of Lewis-Palmer High School.