The 2024 Fall Spirit Week at Communications High School (CHS) was filled with themed dress-up days, exciting competitions and an abundance of school spirit. From the moment the week kicked off, students eagerly embraced each day’s challenges.
Monday’s theme, “Anything but a Backpack,” encouraged students to showcase their creativity by replacing their school bags with unconventional items. From suitcases to toasters, students found a variety of ways to replace the traditional backpack. The day culminated in a high-intensity game of human Hungry Hungry Hippos, where students raced on scooters to collect plastic balls. The seniors finished the event first, then the juniors, followed closely by the sophomores and freshmen.
Sophomore Ryleigh Luethold of Manasquan, a competitor in the event, experienced the nerve-racking aspects of participating in Spirit Week.
“It was kind of stressful because your entire grade is yelling at you, but besides that I had a lot of fun,” Luethold said.
Day two of Spirit Week saw a clash of seasons with the theme, “‘BRAT’ Summer versus Pumpkin Spice Autumn.” Students chose to dress in either summer attire or cozy fall outfits.
The day’s event was a relay race. The contest featured five different sections including a spider crawl, a catching competition, searching for chopsticks in a haystack, a balancing game and a riddle.
Day three’s theme was “Name Day,” with students dressing in outfits that aligned with the first letter of their name. The afternoon’s Make-a-Monster challenge placed students in teams of five and allotted them a limited supply of materials to create a fictitious monster within 30 minutes. Freshmen placed first in this event, followed by the juniors, seniors and sophomores, respectively.
In celebration of Halloween on Thursday, students participated in the CHS Halloween Parade. Each grade concluded the event with victories awarding their creative ensembles, ranging from a group of TI-Nspire calculators to a homemade Transformers costume.
Freshman Irmalize Serafino of Freehold felt the juniors Funniest Costume win, for Family Feud and The Physics Test, was ultimately undeserved.
“As funny as it was, it was only directed to a certain audience,” Serafino said. “If you want to do something funny, it should be generally funny, not just to your grade.”
Luethold was a participant in the “Star Wars” group and shares her perspective on the experience.
“I had a lot of fun because we won. It was kind of stressful getting to that point. I was making costumes the night before,” Luethold said.
The freshmen won the Best Pair category with a submission titled SNL Yeet. Serafino was one half of the winning duo and enjoyed her first experience with the tradition. “I had a lot of fun watching my friends go and then getting to go myself, that was extremely fun,” she said.
Day five’s theme, “Heroes versus Villains,” challenged students to recreate iconic protagonist and antagonist duos. The event was the CHS classic: Super Scav. The seniors utilized strategy over willpower by referencing scavenger hunt lists from past years and coming to school prepared with each of the listed items. This prudent strategy resulted in a first-place win for the class.
The final Spirit Week scoreboard documented the seniors fifth victory, a win that added to the Class of 2025’s record-breaking winning streak. No matter the outcome, students from every grade enjoyed the competition of CHS’s beloved biannual tradition. Sophomore Mimi Fitzgerald of Long Branch was an active competitor throughout the week. “It’s fun dressing up and just participating in events with my grade. It definitely brought us closer together,” she said.
