Photo Credit: Aven O'Hara
Eeyore's Birthday Party "Keeps Austin Weird"
Eeyore's Birthday Party "Keeps Austin Weird"
Aven O'Hara
April 30, 2026
On Saturday, April 25, I went to one of Austin's oldest and weirdest traditions: Eeyore's Birthday Party. Classic Austin hippies crowded into Pease Park to hang out and celebrate Eeyoree, the depressed donkey from the Winnie-the-Pooh books. The tradition started in 1963 when UT students decided to throw a picnic to celebrate spring, themed for Eeyore because he always believed his birthday was forgotten. The festival featured a live donkey, people dancing around a mayflower pole, popsicles and live music. Both kids and adults were in costumes, with some dressed to the theme as Winnie the Pooh characters and others not. There was a man dressed as a priest, and women on stilts dressed as a cloud, and many whimsical hats. There were some scheduled activities such as an egg toss, costume contest, and sack race, as well as an area for juggling, sword fighting, acrobatics, and hula hooping. The Austin community showed up to make the festival a success and it was a great continuation of the “Keep Austin Weird” tradition.
Meet a Teacher: Mr. Messner
Meet a Teacher: Mr. Messner
Maddy Marchand
May 4, 2026
Meet A Teacher:
Mr. Robert Walter Messner
What subject/classes do you teach?
Subject: Math
Classes: Geometry, AP Calculus AB
What is your favorite class to teach and why?
Calculus AB, which he taught 13 yrs in a row. He says that normally people that take the class aren’t very confident in math so it's a good challenge to show those students that they can understand the math.
What college did you go to and what did you study?
Undergraduate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a finance major. After Messner worked in finance for 3 yrs, he decided that he wanted to be a teacher. He earned a graduate degree at Georgia State.
When did you start teaching at St. Andrew’s?
Two years ago
Favorite SAS memory?
When he and his advisory all bought and wore Christmas onesies.
Three things we didn’t know about you that are interesting:
He blew up on a jetski.
“I was working at Camp Champions and the jetski exploded and shot me ten to 15 feet up in the air.”
He goes to ACL every year with his family.
He goes to dj sets and brings glow sticks to throw in air
He distance paddle boards, and paddle board surfs.
Favorite pastime activity
Going to the beach
What is something that is super different at St. Andrew’s compared to when you grew up?
Messner's high school was similar to SAS with the same willingness to participate. Prior to SAS Messner taught at Lake Travis, but he knows more students at SAS than Lake Travis although Lake Travis was much larger.
Favorite dessert?
Messner says that he likes all types of desserts but some that came to mind were cookies and cream ice cream and “elite slices of cake from elite places.”
Favorite memory from high school?
Lots of moments from sports team, big games in LAX, big saves in soccer
Feeling inspired when he was in his favorite teachers’ classes
Hanging out with his friends in basements
Late diner sessions where he and his friends pretended to study
Photo credit: Maddy Marchand
Step Up Day, Class of 2027
Step Up Day, Class of 2027
Alli Laverty
May 4, 2026
On the Monday following the departure of the 2026 seniors, the class of 2027 juniors celebrated their Step Up Day marking their shift to being the oldest on campus. Annually celebrated, this anticipated day includes a water slide, good food, drawing on cars, and matching shirts to go with the senior theme. The 2027 seniors are using the theme “Surfs Up Seniors!”. People showed up in jorts, leis, straw skirts, and fun sunglasses to show their surfer spirit. The soon-to-be seniors’ showed up to campus at 8:20 to commence their car drawing and enjoy a breakfast provided by the parents. Following the first two blocks of the day, the seniors were greeted on the lacrosse field with tacos and an enormous water slide. As one person got on the slide, everyone began to follow. Colby Jacob ‘27 said, “The water slide was super fun because it brought our grade together in a fun way and also brought me back to Lower School with the same SAS people.” This was a shared moment between the class of 2027 that we definitely won't forget! After the waterslide fun, all of the seniors separated and stood in front of the three chapel entrances and with Mother Whitney’s cue, the doors opened and the class of 2027 got to be introduced as seniors for the first time. Gemma Attal ‘27 said that it was “super cute being initiated as a senior with the chapel surprise” and I think everyone could agree!
A Hobby Spreading Faster Than the Black Plague
A Hobby Spreading Faster Than the Black Plague
Laith Osborne
May 4, 2026
If you have noticed, hacky sack is taking over St. Andrews, but hacky sack is spreading beyond St. Andrew’s. Different high schools and colleges are posting videos on social media of circles of people playing hacky sack while doing different tricks with different names for each one. St Andrew’s was ranked number two in SPC at sacking and eight in south national via different Instagram posts. When asked if she liked all the sack circles around St. Andrew’s, sophomore Reese Barnard said, “Sacking is bringing the community more and more together but I am mad how other schools are copying St. Andrew’s and starting to sack because we started it.” During lunch over nine sack circles were seen just on the Nazro Green. The lingo of sacking is also arising, with words such as “butter” and “pendulum” showing different ways to hit the sack. Sacking is getting kids off their phones and a great way to bring a community together. The recent hype around sacking shows it is not slowing down anytime soon.
Photo Credit: Sack.City.SAS Instagram
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