Winter is the best time of the year. Everyone is filled with holiday spirit and joy. We celebrate with our families, but how should we celebrate at school? In the past, the school has thrown the Winter Ball, but it has been far from successful. So what can WJ do to get the students excited about the holidays while still raising money for the school?

There have been some ideas thrown around: a school-wide movie night, fundraisers or another kind of dance. To my knowledge, there isn’t a set plan yet. A school-wide movie night would be really fun, but there would have to be some kind of system where students can vote on which movies they’d like to see. Will the movies just be Christmas movies or will they try to celebrate all holidays? Also, where would the movie night take place? It could happen in the auditorium, but it might not be able to fit all the students who want to view the movie. Maybe multiple movies can be shown in different rooms and students can choose where they want to be.

Having another dance is probably not the best idea. We already have Glo, Homecoming and Prom. Having more variety in what the school does will likely encourage more student participation. Plus, more student participation means more money for the school, which is of course, what really matters. Who knows, the next new event might turn into a school tradition.

The winter holidays are always a great time to come together. Leadership’s idea of doing a staff basketball game sounds great, and I’m looking forward to what else they’re planning for the winter season. They’re going to have to effectively advertise what they’re doing and make it sound appealing to students. This is where Leadership in past years really failed and it’s important to garner support and excitement in the student body. School spirit ultimately translates to participation in school-wide activities, and that’s been very lackluster these last couple of years. We need to get school spirit back, and the only way to effectively do that is to take advantage of this winter season and make events at school a fun and unifying experience.