During the week of February 22, Aevidum hosted a student appreciation week.

Advisor Jennifer Adams explains their intentions, “This year has been hard on everyone. If we can do anything to make students feel appreciated and like they belong; that’s the main takeaway.”

The week featured various themes such as: Comfort (Pajama) day on Monday, Active (Sports) day on Tuesday, decades day on Wednesday, Roots (Country/Camo) day, and a finale in which each grade showcased their prospective class pride by wearing different colors. Freshman wore red, sophomores pink, juniors white, and seniors wore purple.

The student members of Aevidum decided on these particular themes.

But how exactly does a group collectively decide which themes to pack into just five days? Aevidum member Ally Eaton said,“We try to appeal to everyone when we are choosing our themes or our spirit weeks. We want to be able to have at least one day that every student will look forward to.”

Since it was student appreciation week, it makes sense they would appeal to student interests. But it is easier said than done to appeal to a diverse group of individuals in regards to interest and fashion styles.

Eaton further spoke on just how they plan to accomplish their goal by stating “We wanted to provide a day that we knew a lot of students would be able to participate in with things they already had and didn’t have to go out and buy.”

This was a big reason for the decision to go with a country day. It is no secret that our rural area has some roots with a southern and country lifestyle. Considering a larger demographic does, in fact, wear this type of clothing regularly, it was a day many participated in.

For the Decades day, in particular, there was a contest with a prize of a $25 visa gift card. The winner of the contest was senior Annabel Alford who touted an old-timey style dress with vintage style automobiles on it. She said, “I love 50s fashion and fashion history in general, so I never miss a chance to dress up for decade day.”

Aevidum members and advisors also gave out random gift cards throughout the week to students who participated in a theme day. In addition to the gift cards, they also gave out “goodie bags” of candy to student participants.

“We are hoping for the kids seeing the rewards other students are getting; it will make them want to participate as well,” Adams said. The freshman social studies teacher even noted “students’ faces lit up” when handed gift cards at random.

Unfortunately, even with incentives and intriguing themes participation seemed a lot lower than that of previous years.
Some students have attributed this to a lack of knowledge on the day while others claim they did not have the proper clothing to fit the themes.

“I didn’t know we had a spirit week, except for Thursday and Friday,” said Senior Shawn Portello. “I had no idea what they were. I don’t have purple and I don’t own anything camo or cowboy, so I couldn’t participate.”

Senior Summer Luh claimed that the themes just seemed all too repetitive. “Why do we always do the same stuff over and over again. Why can’t we choose.”

Not to mention the obstacle of including hybrid students into the weeks as well. If they only go to school on Camo and Sports Day; then there is not much they can do if they are not into sports and posses no camo clothing.

Aevidum Advisor Jennifer Adams said, “this year has been hard. With everything that’s been going on it’s tough to expect kids to participate.” She also cited the previous snow days as an obstacle in relaying the information of the appreciation week as well.

Aevidum is hopeful that in the future participation does increase, but they do understand why the numbers are relatively low. As the year goes on it is very possible for this to be the case due to more comfortability amongst the students and staff.