A lot in the world may be on pause, but Mercy student government is continuing to move forward with planning fundraisers and school events for the 2020-2021 school year. Most of the last month of September was spent planning for Mercy Spirit Week. 

    “It’s really nice that we’re still able to do [Spirit Week],” said junior class officer Elise Collins. “Everybody gets so excited for it.” Despite not having a homecoming for Spirit Week to lead up to, a lot of work was still put in by student government members to make Spirit Week as similar to past years as possible.

    As with previous years, Spirit Week is themed. This year’s theme is music, with every two days dedicated to a different genre. Most ideas for Spirit Week were generated at a student government socially distanced workshop on August 29.

    According to Collins, “[Spirit Week] is definitely more spread out . . . But I still think it’s going to be fun.” Rather than only lasting one week, this year’s Spirit Week is two weeks long, so each cohort can participate in the different theme days.

    Student government members were divided into committees to split up the work needed to be done in order to prepare for Spirit Week. 

    “We had to come up with the songs that were played during the school day,” said sophomore class officer Ella Sinawi. Sinawi was a part of the music committee, which decided what songs would be played each day during passing time and who would play the songs. Other committees included activities (which planned student activities for Spirit Week) and promotions (which helped to spread information about Spirit Week). 

    Besides working on Spirit Week, student government members have also been busy trying to come up with ways to fundraise for their classes this year. 

“[Sophomore class officers] are hoping for a dance if we’re allowed to have it,” said Sinawi. The sophomore class fundraiser is normally a dance, but officers may need to figure out new ways to fundraise in order to adhere to COVID restrictions. 

According to Collins, “It’s harder to plan things than usual because everything’s up in the air right now.” While class officers hope to be able to put on their regular yearly fundraisers, new ideas are being generated on how they can set up other ways to fundraise. Student government members are continuing to plan school events and fundraisers for a great school year while remaining cognizant of the safety restrictions at hand. 

“[The goal is] to try to do as many activities as we can while being safe,” said Sinawi.