2008 Woodie Awards
West Chester shows spirit
Sheena Ahlmer
Issue date: 4/26/05 Section: News
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Despite the cloudy skies last Friday, purple and gold balloons still lined the streets of West Chester University. Small globes were passed around campus and Sykes Student Union flowed with festivity in celebration of Spirit Day 2005, themed as "Spirit Around the World." "I actually did not know it was Spirit Day until I got to school and saw all the balloons," said student Rachel Armstrong. "Is this the first year West Chester is having Spirit Day?" To answer this question, Spirit Day has occurred in the past, but it has never been this big.
This year, commercials played on WCU-TV prior to Spirit Day. One commercial featured West Chester University cheerleaders and another featured President Adler dressed as WCU?s ram mascot. "We didn?t realize how big of a deal it?d be to put her in a ram costume until about a week before," said Padraic Maroney, who took part in the commercial.
The day kicked off when about 50 students gathered in Hollinger field to have an aerial photograph taken of them in the formation of the letters "WCU."
Mary Pat Spadaford, former vice president of the Student Government Association (SGA), was the brain behind the day?s events. Her last semester as an undergrad, she wanted to make this year bigger than any other. "Up until this point, Spirit Day had just been SGA putting balloons up," said Maroney, Spadaford?s cocoordinator in planning the day?s events.
Spirit Day began as a predominantly SGA-run event, but this year Spadaford said the group wanted a lot of student organizations to come together in order to promote unity. Other organizations were asked to take part in the planning and execution. "One, we don?t have the money; two, we don?t have the manpower; and frankly, it?s Spirit Day, so many should be involved," said Maroney. "It was a case of we got the ball rolling: from there every-one kind of ran with it."
"We wanted an international theme, hence the Spirit Around the World," said Spadaford. A globe was drawn on the sidewalk in front of Main Hall to remind students of the festivities. Purple and gold Hawaiian leis were handed out by Off Campus and Commuter Association (OCCA), which read "SOCCA?n up the sun."
This year, commercials played on WCU-TV prior to Spirit Day. One commercial featured West Chester University cheerleaders and another featured President Adler dressed as WCU?s ram mascot. "We didn?t realize how big of a deal it?d be to put her in a ram costume until about a week before," said Padraic Maroney, who took part in the commercial.
The day kicked off when about 50 students gathered in Hollinger field to have an aerial photograph taken of them in the formation of the letters "WCU."
Mary Pat Spadaford, former vice president of the Student Government Association (SGA), was the brain behind the day?s events. Her last semester as an undergrad, she wanted to make this year bigger than any other. "Up until this point, Spirit Day had just been SGA putting balloons up," said Maroney, Spadaford?s cocoordinator in planning the day?s events.
Spirit Day began as a predominantly SGA-run event, but this year Spadaford said the group wanted a lot of student organizations to come together in order to promote unity. Other organizations were asked to take part in the planning and execution. "One, we don?t have the money; two, we don?t have the manpower; and frankly, it?s Spirit Day, so many should be involved," said Maroney. "It was a case of we got the ball rolling: from there every-one kind of ran with it."
"We wanted an international theme, hence the Spirit Around the World," said Spadaford. A globe was drawn on the sidewalk in front of Main Hall to remind students of the festivities. Purple and gold Hawaiian leis were handed out by Off Campus and Commuter Association (OCCA), which read "SOCCA?n up the sun."
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