By Audrey Lovell, Staff Writer
Change: v. make (someone or something) different; alter or modify.
The definition of what First Flight students are experiencing a lot of this year.
Our original colors — red, green, orange and yellow have been tradition since First Flight High School opened in 2004.
This year when the class colors were switched to white, blue, navy and black, students had a lot of mixed emotions.
“I thought that was ridiculous. We’ve been doing those class colors since as long as I can remember,” senior Fiona McKenna said. “Also, white is so much more lame than red.”
Others, however, believed the new colors were a change for the better.
“I felt like the new class colors better represented First Flight,” senior Brylie King said.
The reason for this change was simple: bring the classes together while showing school spirit simultaneously.
“(It’s) also more unifying for Homecoming because that’s what Homecoming is all about, getting together and celebrating our school,” Principal Chuck Lansing said.
The decision was agreed upon by many FFHS staff members, including Samantha Reynolds Baranyk, First Flights’ instructional technology facilitator and newly appointed SGA sponsor.
“How can we support our team in a spirited way by not having school colors incorporated?” Baranyk said.
Not only this year have we experienced a difference in class colors but also in the Homecoming floats, the pep rally and our Student Government Association (SGA) as well.
Baranyk not only supported the change in class colors but the way SGA is governed as well. In the past, First Flights’ SGA included positions such as Secretary and Historian. Now a board of students work together.
“This promotes a more collaborative environment where students have to work through issues together, collaborate and reach understanding and ownership together,” Baranyk said. “I want them to learn from each other and not have a dictatorship where the president is the only one who makes decisions for a whole class.”
After Homecoming, our SGA’s new agenda includes fundraising for sports, planning future spirit weeks and other events such as reverse homecoming in the future.
“Reverse Homecoming would be like a theme spirit week and then at the end of it we could also have another dance,” Lansing said.
Lansing is also planning on using the original class colors for reverse Homecoming to ease the switch.
This new idea is set for the winter or spring season, essentially Homecoming for a different sport. It’s planned to be just like fall Homecoming, including spirit week, a dance and possibly another parade.
This fall’s Homecoming parade was similar to years past, except for last minute changes to this fall’s floats.
“Originally we were told that all floats were cancelled, and then we had to argue our way into getting white,” McKenna said. “If they knew they wanted to change it, they should have told us well beforehand.”
The class colors change was sudden, and many students had already begun to work on their floats.
“A lot of people had their floats done and all of their supplies for spirit week,” King said.
Plenty of things made this Homecoming difficult, though being brought together to show school spirit let us put aside our thoughts on all the changes.
“I hope that this resonates with everybody,” Lansing said. “That change is good, but transition is hard.”
Junior Audrey Lovell can be reached at 23lovellau71@daretolearn.org.
