By: Danielle Matta

October 15th-19th was Tuscarora’s homecoming week: an annual stretch of 7 days when dress up days, themes, hallway decorations, competitions, and a homecoming kickoff pep rally stir up excitement and school spirit within the student body. This year’s theme of “Rings around the World” gave each class a different country to interpret, and one class in particular truly ran with their designated theme—ran to the bakeries and milliners, that is. France, the home of the beret and baguette, was the country given to the sophomores.
Before they were able to show off their français skills, the entire school had to dress up for Neon Day, Superhero Day, and Twin Day on Monday through Wednesday. With each theme day, the 10th graders became more and more spirited, glowing like the Eiffel Tower at night during Neon Day, appearing even more super than Henri Ducard, Batman’s Parisian mentor, during Superhero Day, and showing up to school on Twin Day looking more identical than Gémeaux (Gemini).
But Thursday and Friday definitely took the cake, or le gateau, as far as spirit goes among the 10th grade class. On Thursday, sophomore classrooms were filled with stripes and scarves and moustaches, the perfect Parisian attire for the Rings around the World spirit day, during which each class dressed according to their class theme. One could have poked their head into any given hallway and they would have seen a multitude of students holding on to their tilted berets as they ran to class or mimes trying to find their way out of a box while at their lockers. There were even some students who went as far as bringing a baguette to school, which added a certain je ne sais quoi to their European getup. The end of spirit week came with the theme of Class Color, and these second-time homecoming pros took their “white out” to the extreme.
The sophomores also showed off their incredible school spirit and unity through the Hallway Decoration Competition. They lit up the hallway with twinkling lights and glitter, a person-sized drawing of the Eiffel Tower, a tribute wall to the “Tour de France” (with people on bicycles adorning moustaches and berets to match), a silhouette park bench scene overlooked by a French poodle, and both display cases transformed into the storefront windows of a bakery and an art museum, truly capturing the essence of “La Ville de Lumiere,” or “The City of Lights.” The sophomores received second place for their hallway, a feat that would make even The Mona Lisa in The Louvre grin.
Becca McHale, a 10th grader herself, thought spirit week went “really , really well. I think the [sophomores] went full-out, and that’s what made it fun,”she says.
It was overall a fantastique Homecoming week for the sophomore class, a true display of school spirit, healthy competition, and trés bon costumes. All it really was missing was a talking mouse helping out with the cooking of some French fries in the cafeteria. But c’est la vie…