Homecoming week gives students a sense of normalcy in a COVID-19 school year

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Ruby Hollis, Staff Writer

This year homecoming looked a lot different due to COVID-19. The student council has been working very hard to make homecoming week just as fun as in previous years. 

With COVID-19, doing the usual games and activities has been very difficult but the student council has worked their way around the difficulties. “We weren’t allowed to have an assembly, so we had to pre-film all the games and make sure they were COVID-19 friendly,” executive Vice President Lucy Byam’ 21 said.

Along with virtual activities, the student council was able to create floats for the homecoming parade. The parade itself has been postponed and it is still unknown when it will be held. The theme for the floats is fairy tales. The freshman’s float was Peter Pan, the sophomore’s float was Hansel and Gretal, the junior’s was Goldielocks and the Three Bears, and the senior’s was Cinderella. 

Seniors this year did not get the homecoming they had hoped for. “It was a sad reality with what we could do. So many traditions and events had to be canceled like powderpuff and the dance had to be canceled,” Jack Webb’ 21 said.

 The dance was canceled but with the homecoming week activities, they were allowed for some normalcy. “Our biggest challenge was just trying to make the year seem as normal as possible. We wanted to include as many events as we did before,” Ellie Battle’ 21 said.

In a normal year, the senior girls choreograph a dance and perform it for the school at the spirit day assembly. Except for this year there was no assembly but the girls were still able to make a dance. The dance was a combination of different dances with coordinating songs and it was played on Primetime. 

Some other activities that were played on Primetime was the teacher basketball and a TikTok competition to see who could make the best TikTok. Student interaction was limited, however, Google forms were posted on the EGR Sports and Stuff Facebook page for students to vote for their favorite TikTok video and what themes they wanted for homecoming week. “It took a lot of extra work but in the end it was worth it because now we get to keep videos of all the activities,” Byam said.

While this year is not normal and difficult for students to cope with, maintaining traditions such as homecoming week and its festivities created a sense of normalcy for the students.