Monday, Oct. 19 -23 Buena´s leadership hosted an action packed Spirit Week that consisted of pajama day, bring your favorite snack to class day, bring a pet and wear orange for free unity day, breast cancer awareness day, and Halloween day. 

¨Our main purpose with these events is to bring our school closer together during these difficult times and remind people that they aren’t alone,” President of Buena´s leadership, senior Vanessa Silva said. “We want school to be a safe fun place for everyone and dressing up gets people more involved than just showing up to an average school day.”

Leadership had to be creative with engaging Buena’s diverse student body during a global pandemic and in the midst of what is a foreign way of learning for many. Spirit Week was an attempt by leadership to continue with events that would occur in a “normal” school year. 

“If these events go as planned, you will absolutely be seeing more of these. My opinion on spirit week was that there were less people participating than expected,” Silva said. “I figured that since it was virtual more people would attend but I didn’t take into consideration the people who don’t feel comfortable turning on their cameras.”

 Even though many students were still camera shy, this event was a great effort to  encourage students to participate, and break the ice with others.

Leadership Advisor Aimee Foster said, ¨For some teachers, they saw students’ faces they had never seen before.” Further reflecting on the week Foster added that she really enjoyed bringing your pet to class day. SEL Wednesday was a great day to have it, because it didn’t interrupt class, and got to meet many students’ pets. For myself, I  have never seen a chinchilla and I got to see one.”

Junior Vahsan Atkinson thought that spirit week was a “very vibrant experience.” 

“I do wish more people participated and turned on their cameras, because this could of possibly gotten a bigger output of impact from the activities,¨ Atkinson said. 

 The theme of each spirit day was intentionally chosen by leadership to be relevant to what is going on in the world and spread awareness about topics that touch close to home for students. 

Atkinson thought that breast cancer awareness day was the most important, “I personally feel that people don’t recognize breast cancer as much as they should, this is because this type of cancer happens to more people than we think and even in family members,¨ Atkinson said.