The Big Walnut

As old traditions die, new ones must take their place. This year during the homecoming pep rally, a new trophy was introduced for the winning grade: a big nut.

There was nothing shockingly memorable about the former trophy, the spirit stick. It was just a stick, a plain old stick covered in red and gold. Mrs. Stooksbury and her student council joked about buying a huge walnut to replace this tradition.

“Since nobody in this building really remembers or even knows about the spirit stick, we wanted to build a new tradition,” Mrs. Stooksbury said.

She went searching online and found a giant wooden walnut. Although the idea was meant to be a joke, actually finding the walnut seemed to be fate.

The giant walnut would be the perfect visual for the school, according to the student council. Mrs. Stooksbury explained, “The other schools have a trophy for most spirited school, but the high school does not participate, so they joked about wanting their own visual.”

Just like that, the new tradition was born.

The walnut itself was a surprise, and so was the merchandise inside. Student council decided to fill the walnut with a representation of each grade’s spirit theme as giveaways.

“We had a stuffed Mario for the seniors, a dinosaur Squishmallow for the juniors, a stuffed racoon for the sophomores, and a shiny deck of cards for the freshman.”

The new tradition expanded further with a plaque made by Woodshop students.

This plaque will be on display in the building, and the winning class will be added each year. The 2024 seniors will get to have their grade and graduating year engraved on this plaque. Stooksbury explained that this will allow all preceding winners to see the who has won in the past.

“We liked the idea of building a new tradition and wanted to represent each winning grade,” Mrs. Stooksbury added.

Student council may have built a new tradition, but they also gifted the school icons to represent the school’s spirit and students’ legacy.