This year marked the second year of the newly-formed Northeast Consortium (NEC) Spirit Week, a contest that looks to build both community and rivalry between the three high schools in the NEC. Last year, Springbrook won the first-ever NEC competition taking home the Spirit Cup. For this year’s battle, the NEC Student Government Association (SGA) came up with five new and improved spirit days for everybody to participate in and, hopefully, improve participation.
Scoring for NEC Spirit Week was dependent on the number of photos submitted to the SGA each day of the week, with each picture counting for one point. The school with the most points at the end of the week won the cup.

On Monday, students and staff at each school began the week with one of the most popular spirit days: Culture Day. On this day, many students – and some staff – participated and we got to see many people showing off their culture. A quick look around the halls revealed many different areas of the world represented as people shined a light on the dress and customs that they celebrate. According to PB Class of 2025 President Crystal Masih, who wore a green palazo, a long blouse with flared pants in the color palette of a peacock, stated, “it was a fun day, especially since I got to represent my culture and learn about other cultures through clothing, and how these represent my peers’ culture.” She also explained that she loves her cultural clothing because it makes her feel pretty.
After the first day of NEC Spirit Week, PB found itself in last place as Springbrook took the lead with 93 points, Blake was second at 48, and PB in last place with 43 points.

Tuesday brought a focus on Extreme Weather Day, which called for people to dress for extreme weather conditions.The day saw quite a few people participating dressed in rain ponchos and umbrella hats, as well as some other emergency and poor-weather preparedness attire. Freshman Brianna Broadnax, who dressed up for a snow storm, stated, “I participated on this day because I thought the idea was fun to see everybody dressed up for a different type of weather. The ones I saw were amazing and amusing.”
Heading into day 3 of the week, Springbrook fell to second with 133 points, PB stayed stuck in last at 62 points, and Blake jumped into first with 136 points.

Looking around on Wednesday saw people dressed up for Character vs. Celebrity Day. On this day students dressed as their favorite movie or TV show character, including anime, or represented their favorite celebrity. Some of the characters/celebs included Luffy from One Piece, and Frat boys.
As day 4 began, Springbrook was back in the lead with 307 points, Blake fell to second with 261 points, and PB was still a distant third with just 148 points. Day 4 was time to take a step back for Back to the Future Day. It seemed that most students who participated dressed up as nurses or doctors as their career path.

The last and final day of NEC spirit week ended with showing off your school’s spirit wear for NEC Day. An unexpected surprise to help bring the spirit to PB occurred at lunch as the Panther mascot “Paco” made an appearance. He hung around the business office along with the SGA president, secretary, and treasurer who were monitoring the stand for contributions to the “penny wars,” which was an opportunity for staff and students to donate money to the residents of Friendly Gardens apartment complex.