DHS student body involved in community week

Community week at De Soto

The general idea of a Community Week at De Soto High School is to bring the student body together. Whether this is through passing out Lifesaver candies, welcoming students into the school or even the famous Seminar door decorating contest.

Many students love Community Week at DHS, with smiles and laughter in the hallways throughout, the energy was very immersive this week.

Students that participate in freshman mentoring, otherwise known as A&M Crew, helped lead an event Monday morning, in which students welcomed and passed out candy to other students as they walked into school.

Another big thing that DHS did was allow students to participate in lifesaver appreciation, in which students wrote their friends’ notes with motivational quotes on the back of a piece of paper stating, “you are a LIFESAVER!”

“I really enjoyed seeing the Lifesaver activity, we went through probably around 600 Lifesavers, in which students would receive little messages of how they are appreciated,” school social worker Joe Kordalski said.

Another fun event that gets a lot of love every year is the Seminar door decorating contest. 

“It was fun to see the comradery of the door decorating contest,” Kordalski said. “There are several teachers who have a very competitive streak, so that is contagious in their classes.

The previous winner of the decorating contest was DeAnn Thaemert’s Seminar. With winning multiple years in a row, DHS students had high expectations for her seminar’s door.

Students said things such as, “We have to beat Mrs. Thaemert’s seminar” and “why has Mrs. Thaemert’s seminar not done anything to their door yet?” 

With these comments coming from almost every upperclassmen seminar, the underclassmen did not expect anything from Thaemert’s Seminar.

However, when it came down to the voting, winning another year was none other than Thaemert.With honorable mentions to Sheila Wilkins, Mindy Fry, Drew Proctor and Emily Thayer. 

 Due to COVID-19, the contest was nonexistent last year. DHS was only fully in-person for one semester making it difficult for school spirit to occur as much.

De Soto’s Community Week made big strides this year, bringing the student body together, motivating others, welcoming students on their first day of the week and a very popular door decorating contest in Seminar.