Hallway decorating heightens Hoco spirit

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Students stand around and watch as two people work on the Junior Class Banner at Banner Night last year. Photo by Zahra Ahmed

Zahra Ahmed, Staff Writer

Hallway decorating is a new incorporation this year for homecoming at RHS. All students are invited to help decorate class hallways and/or club doors in accordance to the haunted theme tonight from 6-9 p.m. These decorations will be judged on Tuesday morning and will stay up for the rest of the week to enhance the Hoco spirit at school.

In years past, Falcons have come together on Banner Night to create banners representing a class or club. These banners were then presented during the homecoming football game and judged. The winning class banner earned points towards the Falcon Cup, while the winning club received $100.

Similar guidelines still apply to this year’s hallway decorating, except that students will be decorating halls instead of banners.

This shift to hallways increases spirit throughout the whole school. Decorating a hallway takes more time and definitely more people. With  banners, the most people could do to contribute was possibly give an idea or cut out a piece of felt, while only one or two other people actually created the banner. With a whole hallway to decorate now, everyone’s ideas have the opportunity to be displayed and everyone can participate at the same time.

Hallway decorating also allows for more creativity, as the only restrictions are not having anything hanging from or on the ceiling and not using glue of any kind, whereas banners could only be made out of felt.

Unlike before, where the banners could only be viewed at the football game and were thrown out afterwards–more previously hung in the Mall–hallway decorations will stay up throughout the week for all to notice. People walking through the halls during the school day will be able to get a stronger feel of school spirit building up as the game and dance approach. It makes the school’s atmosphere more exciting and involves more people than banners did.

Despite having no direct involvement in the homecoming game or dance, switching from banners to hallway decorating seems to be a change for the better.