The Student Government Association’s (SGA) annual Spring Project is a memorable part of the school year, but this year greatly varies from past ones due to a change in the long-standing pattern of the project’s themes. The decision to change the pre-planned project theme was largely due to the school shooting that took place on Feb. 9, and the new theme that took its place highlights the community’s strength and resilience, while keeping the same fun games and activities that connect students across all grade levels.
Choosing the project theme each year is a long and thorough process on its own. As the project date approaches, SGA comes together and reflects on a theme that they think is both prominent and needs to be addressed as a school. “Normally, when we choose a theme, it is done as a class-wide discussion led by the co-presidents. This year, we began by brainstorming what problems our community needed to address and weak areas that require some growth,” SGA co-president Charlie Rollins said.
However, there has been a pattern in regards to the project themes. Every four years, the theme of Patriots Stay Safe repeats, while the other three themes in the four-year cycle are new and involve SGA’s aforementioned discussion. During a spring project with the theme of Patriots Stay Safe, a random student “dies” every 15 minutes and is pulled out of class to represent the lives lost during car crashes. The project is complete with a staged video of a car crash and a “graveyard” of “dead” students at the end of the school day in order to make the event more realistic to students and staff. “It is only done every four years so that most students would have the experience once during their time at Wootton. It is a national program that has local designated people who help coordinate efforts between the school, fire departments and police department,” SGA co-sponsor Amy Buckingham said.
This year is the fourth year in the project theme’s four-year cycle, so Patriots Stay Safe was meant to be the theme, but a decision was made by SGA to break the cycle and change the theme due to the school shooting last month. Instead of Patriots Stay Safe, the theme of Wootton Strong took its place. “As a class, we decided that the best thing for the school as a whole to focus on is seeking strength and solace in our community. Wootton Strong represents the idea that no matter what comes our way, whether it be tragedy or turmoil, we as a school are ready to overcome and grow together as a community,” SGA member Peace Tiam said.
As the school shooting only took place last month, this change in the theme was relatively last minute, and SGA members did their best to adapt to the change and bounce back from the time lost from their previous planning. “I personally was on the video committee for the crash [to plan, record, and play a role in the staged car crash] and I would say that we were just about to start fully putting things into motion [by recording scenes] before we had to switch it up. We had obtained the car and gotten the fire department ready. However, once the incident occurred, we emailed people who we had reached out to and explained the situation,” Tiam said.
With this new theme, students can still look forward to fun and engaging activities that SGA has planned, including a fan-favorite from last year, Patriot Games. These games intend to connect all students as they participate and cheer each other on, fostering community after a time of such severe distress and conflict. “Currently, we have already hosted our student-staff basketball game that had great attendance, and we are looking forward to hosting Wootton’s Got Talent. We are also super excited to bring Patriot Games on March 25,” SGA secretary Catherine Busca said.
Wootton Strong is more than a theme for the project; it reflects the strength that the students, staff and community have shown to themselves and each other. Through this year’s Spring Project, SGA hopes to bring positivity to the school while still bringing attention to the school’s resilience. “I believe that we as an association want Wootton to take away the fact that we will weather the storm regardless of how damaging it may be. We can, and will, rebuild, grow and overcome together because that is the type of community we are. We are strong and we are one,” Tiam said.
