Ofrendas

Ofrendas are altars made of photos, mementos, and decorations composed to honor those who have passed away.

These ofrendas are built on the interior windowsills within the High School and they are visible from Benton Street.

Spanish 3 and 4 students have created ofrendas to honor the memory of special people who have passed away.

Travis Seebergoss

This ofrenda represents Travis Seebergoss, a young man in the class of 2026, who passed away last year. The ofrenda was made by his family, who generously offered to share the opportunity to celebrate his memory. His friends and peers remember him as a kind and funny young man. In the offering are several things of his. His football jersey, number seven, represents his great passion for football. Many remember him on the field. His teddy bear is here, representing the tenderness of this child. There is pizza because he loved pizza. It was his favorite food. Travis died in September 2020.

Chicas De Bainbridge

This ofrenda represents Marina Miller, a young girl who attended Bainbridge High School, and passed away suddenly in a car crash in March. as the School of Volleyball. She was known for her positive attitude, skills, and unwavering support for her teammates. To know Marina is to laugh, to love, and to be inspired by her generous acts of kindness. She had a gentle and humble nature, but she was driven to work hard at school and sports. She had an infectious sense of humor and above all, cared deeply about her friends and family. She will be deeply and forever missed. On this ofrenda we have a sweatshirt from the Bainbridge Island football Club she played on. We have a volleyball to show her love for the sport and the thing that connected her to Hazel and Hannah. Her favorite childhood stuffed animal was a pig, and so we have a similar one next to her photo. We also have traditional Day of the Dead flowers, butterflies, and candles.

Ryan Caldwell

Ryan LOVED spicy food. Hense the peppers featured on the ofrenda. Especially pad Thai and orange chicken from 1-2-3 Thai. I remember he also loved peanut butter. The last time I saw Ryan, he had just woken up from a nap and wandered groggily into the kitchen and ate a spoonful of peanut butter.

After Ryan passed, his mom found a video on her phone. Ryan had borrowed her phone to take it. She had never looked at it before, but it was a video of him dancing! And he had some serious moves. We were all shocked and impressed, he had skills! I remember smiling from ear to ear watching it. Ryan could always make anyone smile or laugh.

Ryan changed the lives and warmed the hearts of everyone who met him. He had a profound impact on the community in the 21 years of his life. Rest in peace Ryan, you are loved and missed by so many people.

-Chloe Lampert

On many ofrendas, or altars, sugar skulls are displayed to represent the departed souls, and to honor them. This year, our ofrenda honors the victims of Breast Cancer, and to incorporate this into the piece, we added pink doodles to the paper cut-out calaca (skull) in the window. We also made sure to include photographs of people in our community who have passed away from this disease, in an act of remembrance.

The butterflies represent the individual souls traveling back on Day of the Dead to visit living family members. This tradition is rooted in the migration of monarch butterflies to Latin America every year. They usually arrive around the beginning of November, which lines perfectly with Day of the Dead: the day in which the souls of family members are believed to travel back to the Land of the Living.

Víctimas del Cáncer de Mama

Our ofrenda honors the lives of unarmed African Americans who have been unjustly killed by officers of law enforcement. The names written on our skull are the names of those who have lost their lives as a result of this recurring pattern of violence. While we were able to represent many of these people, there are many more which we did not have room to include, an indicator of the magnitude of the lives which have been cut short in this way. Displayed below the window are photos of some of these people, a sample of the many black Americans who have been killed by officers of the law. They put a face to the names, and remind us of the humanity of each of these individuals. With both the names and pictures, deaths stretch from the 1960’s right up to the spring of 2021. A compiled list of the deaths during this time period records the number of unarmed black people killed in these types of incidents to be nearly 200. According to policeviolencereport.org, though they make up only 13% of the national population, African Americans account for a disproportionate 35% of all unarmed killings by police.

In creating this ofrenda, we wish to recognize the injustice that exists in our nation and seek to lift up these individuals as human beings who deserved the right to life

-Sophia L

Víctimas de la Brutalidad Policial

Mujeres Indígenas

Our group carefully chose items of significance to a variety of different Native cultures and tried to incorporate items made by Indigenous women in our Ofrenda. We used birch baskets made by Native women from Minnesota, clothes woven by Native women, and pottery painted by Indigenous women. Our teacher was able to supply many of these items and tell us the story behind each one.

We incorporated dried corn with two prongs which represent a mother and child. We also used cedar bows to honor the history of the local tribes of the area. Our group strived to pay homage to Native cultures in a tasteful and respectful way.

Víctimas Del Covid 19

In our ofrenda we made sure to represent a clear portrayal of Earth, Air, Water, and Fire, as is tradition on the Day of the Dead.For the many victims of Covid-19 over the months it is important to celebrate their lives and honor them thoroughly. We decided to use existing items to represent these aspects: candles for the fire, flowers and plants for the earth, vases with liquid for water, and lastly, for air, we used flowers and illustrations. Other traditional objects used were a bowl of food offered to the dead, various skulls, and finally the corn, representing the individual deaths caused specifically by Covid-19 in the past year and a half.

This ofrenda represents the many people who died from heart disease. Heart disease kills almost 700,000 people per year in the United States alone. It encompasses a wide range of more specific things, such as coronary heart disease and heart attacks, as well as arrhythmia. Almost all of us know people who have died from heart disease, and it’s important that we remember and honor them.

Víctimas de Enfermedad de Corázon

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