Schools are always looking for ways to boost their spirit and students’ overall moral. Recently on the FC campus parents, faculty and staff have been trying to find new ways to encourage school spirit.

Both the FC staff and students are working to offer more options to spur students’ pride in their school. The leadership class on campus started one new way to encourage the students by providing the high school body with an online shop to order their school apparel.

This includes shirts, jackets, hats, bags and other items that students can order. The online store was only temporarily available to see how the FC community would respond to it. However, even though the site was only open for a short time, leadership plans to re-open it again at a later date.

In addition to being able to have more school apparel, the junior high and high school principal Todd Bennett, thought of some ideas on how the students could improve their appreciation of FC by themselves.

“I think the more students their are willing to come out and attend our athletic events the better,” Bennett said. “We had a pretty good volleyball team this year but we had very few students come out to watch it. With basketball season coming up, we’re going to have a game a week, a girls game or a boys game, so we would like to see kids at the gym.”

Along with supporting the basketball team, Bennett also encourages students to support the boys’ and girls’ soccer teams in order to connect more as a school.

“We would also like to see kids out watching our soccer games because we are going to have some good soccer teams as well,” Bennett said. “Being part of the school is very important. Whether you are on a team or just supporting them, that’s important. I’ve been very pleased with the attitude of our students this year in general.”

Currently, Bennett is happy with the overall school environment.

“It’s been a very positive atmosphere on campus,” Bennett said. “The kids are friendly to each other, their friendly to adults and that sort of thing really helps in building school spirit. I also think it’s very important that kids really understand and appreciate what a great place our campus is, and I think this all starts with being kind to one another.”

Bailey Brogan, 16′, says he has a ton of school spirit.

“I enjoy going to this school because I like the students and teachers,” Brogan said. “The teachers are exceptionally good and friendly. Except for Mr. Stobbe; he’s just scary. But overall I’m privileged to be able to attend a Christian school and be able to speak freely about my faith, since that’s a privilege we might not have at another school.”

Fort Lee high schools newspaper says that the senior classes of most high schools tend to have the highest spirit and tendencies to attend school events. Whether or not this is due in part to most seniors being able to drive and/or having their own vehicles they can use to transport themselves it did not say. However we can all find different ways to show our pride in our school, regardless or what situation we are in.

According to freshman Tyler Voelker, he does not participate in many school events, due to most of his friends leaving the school.

“I have a little school spirit,” Voelker said. “Not a lot but just a little. On occasion I’ll participate in school spirit activities, but I usually don’t express it. To be honest I would transfer if I had the chance. Mainly because a lot of people I was friends with have left the school.”

For more features, read the Dec. 14 article, Students anticipate Christmas vacation.