For many students, one of the best things about homecoming week is the dress up days, which allow everyone to participate in the homecoming festivities.

“Every day, every week, except for homecoming week, you just get to wear boring clothes, but actually getting to dress up on homecoming, when everyone participates and you get to see everyone’s fun outfits, it makes it really memorable,” senior AJ Arensberg said.

To encourage more participation, the student council let the student body help decide what the days would be by sending out a survey.

“Student council comes up with a list of days, and then we have the past two years for sure, potentially the past three years, sent out a form so that the student body can vote on different dress up days. And so we decide by picking the three or four highest voted days,” student council sponsor Alyssa Hansen said.

The days that were chosen this year were USA day on Monday, Color day on Tuesday, Wambulance Wednesday, Hawaiian day on Thursday and Spirit day on Friday. A favorite among these was Wambulance Wednesday, where students and staff got to fake an injury at school.

“My favorite day was fake an injury because so many people did so many different things, like when Logan Maloy used a wheelchair, Charlie Tasich wore a neck brace all day [and] Draven Campbell used crutches,” eighth grader Eli Thompson said. 

For some people, it’s easy to dress up because they have clothes from previous years, family members or costumes, while others have to go out and buy supplies. 

“Well, for most of the days, you know, you just scrounge around and find stuff at your house. And also, I had older siblings, and my mom used to work here, so you get stuff from past years. For Wednesday, my mom actually rented out a scooter for me to ride around,” Arensberg said.

Because not everyone has the same things from past years or costumes, they get to use their own clothes to show how they think each theme can look. 

“I thought that there were a lot of people showing creative stuff, like when AJ brought a scooter to Wambulance Wednesday or when I wore a coconut bra for Hawaiian day. The creativity was shown really well over the week,” freshman Kale Hoffer said.

Every year, Hansen keeps track of the participation of each grade level on each day of the week, and this year the juniors won with 94 percent of them dressed up on Monday, 97 percent on Tuesday, 97 percent on Wednesday and 94 percent on Thursday. 

“I think that we participated well because we’ve done it for so many years, and it’s a fun thing to do that isn’t very hard. I also think that as upperclassmen we are role models for the younger kids, and I know that if they see us dress up then they will probably dress up too,” junior Mylee Tichota said.

Even though the juniors won, the other grades still showed strong participation throughout the week, never dipping below 70 percent. 

“It’s always a pretty strict competition. The current senior class won last year, so they were definitely a contender. Seventh grade, because it’s their first year, they’re usually all in. But the juniors were pretty dominant the entire week,” Hansen said. 

Whether their grade won or not, being part of the experience is what will stick with the students for years to come.

“Wambulance Wednesday was a new theme this year, and it was really memorable seeing everyone dress up for that, along with seeing all the students and staff dress up and have so much pride during the week,” sophomore Jancye Long said.