This past Friday, October 25^th, Madison High School had its first pep rally of the year and the result was anything but ordinary compared to recent years’ attempts. The school was literally covered in maroon and gold as students dove in to decorate the building in Dodger pride.

Since my freshman year at Madison High, one thing that always bothered me was the lack of school spirit. Students will question from time to time why the school isn’t as festive as nearby schools. However, everyone that once lacked spirit for Madison was in awe when the school came together as one, and all doused in maroon and gold.

Last year there was no pep rally and no one was really quite sure as to why the event disappeared. Even though the rally wasn’t a huge point of students’ focus, its absence highlighted the emptiness of school unity.  This year, however, Student Council President Abi Raymaker and Vice- President AJ Ding were determined to bring the event back to life with the help of fellow council members and the entire student body.

It’s clear that the Student Council did a superb job in planning the event. Each grade had designated hallways to decorate to represent themselves which made way for entertaining competition. Students and faculty members were covered head to toe in maroon and gold throughout the school day. A table was even set up in the main lobby during lunch to give students the opportunity to put on a Madison tattoo or even color his or her entire face in maroon and gold paint.

At the Pep Rally, the gymnasium was full of hundreds of wound- up students in Dodger gear and separated in by grade for each section. The chanting, applause, and support for fellow students during captain speeches, tug-of-war, dance-off, and band performance made students feel proud to be a part of Madison High School. As the 12^th graders threw confetti in the air, stormed the court, and chanted “Seniors” towards the end of the rally, it was clear that school spirit was brought back to Madison. It felt even more amazing for seniors as this was the first Pep rally we have ever experienced with such vigor and enthusiasm from so many people. The Student Council organized pep rally was just the beginning of an energized and supportive school atmosphere as this week (October 28^th– November 1^st) is “Spirit Week”. Everyone should go all out in dressing up for each day’s theme; Monday is “Dress for Success”, Tuesday is “Twin Day”, Wednesday is “America Day”, Thursday is “Halloween Costume”, and Friday is “Class Clash” (Freshmen wear white, Sophomores- gold, Juniors- maroon, and Seniors- black). From my own perspective along with hundreds of other students’ and faculty members’, it was clear that on October 25^th, it was a great day to be a Dodger.

Since Abi (AR) was the leader of the event, I decided to ask her some questions about her motivation and reaction to the event:

MDO: What motivated you to bring the pep rally back to the high school and lead it?

AR: The main motivation and inspiration for bringing back a pep rally at MHS were the pep rallies held at my previous high school, Glenbrook South in Illinois. It was amazing to be at a school with so much spirit, and you can tell Madison has lots of spirit but it sometimes is confined to sports teams or other smaller groups within the school so I really wanted to try having the whole school come together. Our student council this year is full of amazing people, and I knew that if we decided to do a pep rally we would have tons of great people to make it happen so I wasn’t worried about that.

MDO: What was your reaction to the student body’s massive participation in the event?

AR: I was really excited to see how everything came together. I was also really proud of everyone who helped make it happen, because we all had some worries. It was kind of scary just because we knew we had to make the pep rally really great because a lot of kids had a preconceived idea of pep rallies being “lame”. It’s hard to have anything be fun once just a few kids start to say it’s lame. I was also really proud of our school- I feel like people put themselves out there by painting their faces and dressing up and opening their mind to something that’s sort of new for our school.

MDO: Do you think that this pep rally is just the start of more school spirit at Madison?

AR: The pep rally is just the start. It’s going to kick off an awesome spirit week, and hopefully tons of other events. Now that the student body sees that we do have spirit and that it’s a really cool thing, they’re excited for more spirit events and that just makes the student council’s job easier. We’re all really excited to plan more stuff.

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