The 8th Grade Winter Celebration

The class of 2028’s 8th grade celebration took place on December 15, 2023, in the WMS cafeteria. Set up by the 8th grade student council, they had the goal of building community among the 8th graders. From what we heard from many 8th graders in interviews coming up, they loved it. We will also be meeting with a volunteer who helped set up the event: Karen Rietze. 

After talking to several 8th graders, it was clear that the celebration was a hit. Nia Madias told us a little bit about the event. “So, the 8th grade celebration is all about connecting with friends and people who might not be your friends but just classmates.” She explained. “So this year the Student Council chose to decorate cookies, have hot chocolate, and there was a photo booth.“ When we asked Nia what her favorite part was, she told us; “I really enjoyed the cookie decorating because we got to eat food!” The 8th graders said that the celebration was set up so that each of the three big tables had several cookies on them, ready to decorate with frosting and sprinkles. “They also had hot chocolate but that ran out quickly,” Eli Vance said. After being asked what could be better, he said: “If they had more [hot chocolate] that would’ve been nice, but honestly it was pretty good.”  Other eighth graders also had some minor issues with the crowd control, as some people would grab many cookies at once while others got none because of it.

When interviewing Karen Rietze, we found out that it took about 1 hour (max) to set up, and around 20 minutes to take down and clean up. So overall, the 8th grade celebration was a huge success, and the 8th grade student council can’t wait for the 7th graders to experience it next year.