West’s annual Spirit Week is a special time when students and teachers alike are free to express themselves fully. It is an opportunity to showcase school spirit and encourage students to have fun with fashion. As staff writers for the Lion’s Roar, we interviewed members of the West 

community throughout the week about their outfits! 

Day 1- Hawaiian Day

Hawaiian Day kicked off the week and allowed both students and teachers to dress in Hawaiian-style clothing. We interviewed fellow ninth grader Saraiya Alicea about her thoughts regarding spirit week so far.

Q: How do you feel about spirit week overall?

A: This is the first time I’m actually celebrating it, so pretty good!

Q: How do you feel about the themes of spirit week?

A: They should add more exciting ones. The only exciting ones in my opinion were the 50s and today’s theme. 

Q: How do you feel about the 50s being the freshman decade?

A: Personally, I like it. But I heard a lot of people don’t really like it because nobody really knows about the 50s. But I think it has a nice variety (of clothing). 

Photo courtesy of Saraiya Alicea 

Day 2- Decade Day

During spirit week, a decade is assigned for each grade level to dress up as. Naliya McClinton, a ninth-grader, was asked about her thoughts on this theme. 

Q: How do you feel about spirit week overall?

A: I think it’s fun and a good excuse to dress up..

Q: Do you think more freshmen should have dressed up?

A: Yeah, they’re being kind of lame. But it’s probably just because they’re freshmen and they don’t really have school spirit yet.

Q: How do you feel about the 50s being the freshman decade?

A: I think we could have done a better decade, but we didn’t really have much to work with because the other decades were taken.

Q: How difficult was it to get your costume for today?

A: It wasn’t too hard, I just looked online. 

Photo courtesy of Lacey Abdela 

Day 3 -Jersey Day

Jersey Day is when students and teachers can both wear their favorite sporting jerseys to school. We interviewed Señora Batista-Arias about her overall thoughts on this year’s spirit week. 

Q: How do you feel about spirit week so far?

A: I’m loving spirit week! I’m loving how it brings all this energy right before the holidays. I’m loving the doors, and I’m loving all the different themes that we have, so I think that it’s a wonderful addition.

Q: Tell us about the jersey you’re wearing today.

A: I had a special jersey made. I am a baseball mom, I love baseball. So I had a special Cherry Hill West jersey made with my name and number. And because I’m Dominican, and baseball’s the national pastime of the Dominican Republic, I got the Dominican flag on it.

Q: How do you feel about the different decades of spirit week?

A: I thought that was awesome. I needed a little bit more warning to prepare for all of the decades, but the 90s is my favorite. I love to see the kids coming in dressed in their decade’s outfits.

Photo courtesy of Lacey Abdela 

Day 4- Favorite Holiday

On day 4, the West community had to wear something inspired by their favorite holiday. Hannah Quach, a ninth-grader, was interviewed to share her thoughts on the theme for today. 

Q: How do you feel about spirit week overall?

A: The events that happen during the lunch periods are fun! The dressing up is also really nice to see.

Q: How do you feel about today’s theme?

A: My favorite holiday is Christmas and I just like dressing in pajamas, it’s comfortable all day. The holiday theme is fun for dressing up and seeing what others’ favorite holidays are too.

Q: How do you feel about the other spirit week themes?

A: The other themes were okay but I think there could be better ones and take some student input on it. But overall, it was fun seeing people dress up.

Photo courtesy of Lacey Abdela 

Day 5- Wear Your Grades Color

The final day of spirit week is wearing your grade’s color. Fellow ninth-grader, Selena Santos, shares her impressions on spirit week as a whole and the day’s theme. 

Q: How do you feel about spirit week overall?

A: It’s not really what I expected. Not many people are dressing up, but it’s fun to see the people that do.

Q: How do you feel about blue being the theme today for freshmen?

A: I think it’s a pretty basic but classic theme. I think the theme could have been something else other than a color, but it’s still a cool theme.

Photo courtesy of Thy Dang