Energy was high on Tuesday as ASB put on their second pep rally of the year to recognize the rivalry basketball games against the Santa Monica Vikings that night, and celebrate the other winter sports.
This pep rally was anything but ordinary. Strategically tacked onto the back end of Wish Week, ASB members conducted a “miracle minute” during both assembly periods to collect spare change for donations to the Make-a-Wish Foundation from anyone and everyone in the stands who had it.
Complete with performances from cheer, band and Madrigals, announcements from the winter sports captains and a half court shot competition, ASB members noticed that the audiences in both assemblies were much more engaged than they were at the fall pep rally, ASB representative sophomore Kevin Manavi said.
The most special part of this pep rally, however, for junior class president and Make-a-Wish Club president Michael Newman, was the feeling he got not only from riling up the crowds, but from giving back.
“Honestly, the biggest part of this is just the gratitude I get from planning something that’s so extraordinary and providing something that many people have provided for them,” he said. “The fact that I get to go around and sell shirts and food, the talent show and all these events that are going toward the Make-A-Wish Foundation just makes me feel really good, like a kind hearted person.”
Since the pep rally fell directly before big-time events, ASB representative and pep-rally planner sophomore Aidan Dayani thought that since pep rallies had been successful in past years, the culmination of this week’s excitement would get the student body even more invested in school spirit.
“I think that once they get to come and see what Beverly as a community is all about with our spirit, people are more likely to want to partake in our activities now that they know what they are and now that they see how much spirit we have about it,” he said.
ASB advisor Jennifer Goolsby agrees that the crowd was far more engaged during this rally than they had in the past, partially because of the new activities ASB included.
“I want it known that the students did all of that work. We had some ASB kids helping with the script for the pep rally. And, for planning the pep rally, the Make-A-Wish club did so much of that work,” Goolsby said. “I just stepped in the last couple of days and kind of went over their script and tried to estimate the timing of things. It’s really great that the kids put so much effort into making these things happen. In the talent show as well, all I did was supervise.”