As the Florida cold swept in and students began to shift from shorts to pants, Hagerty students and staff celebrated the coming of winter and the holiday season with the annual Winter Week. Taking place from Dec. 7 through Dec. 11, leadership planned a week of spirit days and winter-themed events to reign in the holiday cheer. 

Following the traditions of years past, Winter Week featured five dress-up days: Ugly Sweaters on Monday, Snooze Day Tuesday, Frasca’s Frost on Wednesday, Hawaiian Holiday on Thursday, and Cheers to the New Years on Friday. Students came to school in a variety of winter wear, with many students having mini-photoshoots in front of the dress-up day signs. 

While dress-up days took place during the day, after-hours were the annual events. The Flick on the 50 had students bringing chairs, blankets and friends on Monday to set up in the Sam Momary football field to watch an outdoor showing of “Home Alone.” Students were allowed to buy snacks at the concession stand and sat, socially distanced, to enjoy the film. 

The dodgeball tournament on Wednesday, had teams of students competing in a classic dodgeball tournament. The winning team, led by senior Aaron Ball, defeated the faculty team after a competitive match.

“I enjoyed how you saw a variety of different people around the school come and participate,” Ball said. “I also enjoyed the people who decided to come and watch.” 

Behind the scenes, Leadership put immense effort into planning, setting-up, and participating in the Winter Week events. Between planning the time, what movie to play, posting tickets on GoFan, and communicating with outside sources to purchase the screen, the Leadership team had to consider a variety of factors.

“I think having a student perspective kind of allowed us to envision the participation throughout the week,” senior Gina Dillulo said. 

 The main concern for the team was wondering if enough students would participate, but after the events planning was done, the team was confident their work would pay off. The show-up to both events met the goal of the team, with the Flick on the 50 having over 100 students appearing. 

“I felt that these events would have a large turnout, and they did, and I’m satisfied with it,” freshman Owen Anirault said.

With  heavier concern placed on health and safety, the team had an added layer of difficulty planning. This difficulty was overcome very quickly, and the team has a positive perspective on the changes from last year to this year. 

“The dodgeball event also had much more student involvement compared to last year,” Dilullo said. “I also think we were able to get more ticket sales by selling through GoFan.” 

Though the year has been anything but normal, students are continuing to return to a school environment where students can be involved and have fun, despite the struggles and hardships they have been through. Winter Week is another example of how students are doing more with less and having a positive outlook on the future of this year.