BHS begins Homeroom Olympics
January 31, 2022
Until Feb. 11, BHS homerooms will continue to participate in the “Homeroom Olympics,” in a different attempt to increase school spirit and participation. Thus far, the competition has included a flag-decorating contest, a most improved GPA contest, and raffles. Last week, the challenge for each homeroom is to get the least amount of tardies. Principal Bryant Bednarek says another reason for the contest is to mix things up during the bleak winter months.
“The idea came about as I was staring at my bedroom ceiling fan one night, trying to think of how we can have a little fun, yet make it constructive,” Bednarek said. “I read about another school having ‘theme’ weeks and from there, the BHS Homeroom Olympics were born.”
The first competition was a challenge to see which homeroom could design the best personalized flag. Many homerooms participated in the contest, including tech ed. teacher Joel Johansen’s homeroom, who won the silver medal in the contest.
“Each small group of kids came up with several ideas, then from those we decided on the basic direction for the poster design. We linked coffee to Java because my name starts with a J and then found an animal for the theme (also a J) messed with the spelling a bit and that was the end result,” Johansen said.
Two weeks ago, each student who showed up to any kind of school event received a raffle ticket. From there, they could enter their name to win a Kindle Fire tablet or a pair of headphones. Six winners were chosen for the tablets, including junior Ethan Brunke.
“The ‘game’ of the previous school week was to attend extra-curricular activities. When I attended the Poetry Slam last Saturday evening, I was given a ticket. From there I was entered into the raffle that I won,” Brunke said. “I was very surprised. Besides that, I felt great. It was a good sort of shock to be rewarded for participating in school events.”
Much to his surprise, the BHS Homeroom Olympics has been a big success so far according to Bednarek. He wanted this to be a way for the school to be brought together.
“The response that I have gotten from the students on this has been extremely positive. I received a lot of positive comments about the video Coach Stellmacher and I made to kick things off. I have received a lot of gratitude and appreciation from students who have won prizes like root beer floats, doughnuts, tablets and headphones. Overall, it’s probably been a bigger success than I was anticipating. At Berlin High School, we really do have great kids,” Bednarek said.
