Galloway School Spirit

I’ve been at Galloway for almost six years, and one thing I’ve often wished there was more of is school spirit. I got tired of seeing empty stands at Galloway games, so some friends and I started a game of our own to try to change that.

So we set up a point system.

Fewer points for Galloway events that happen more frequently (like sports games or Wednesday morning concerts) and more points for events that only happen once every few months (like dance recitals or theatre productions). We keep our points tallied, and we have to be able to prove that we went to the game or production in order to get the points. They can do that by taking a picture or sending the rest of us their location. At the end of the semester, whoever has the most points gets gift cards from all of the other participants. And who doesn’t like free stuff? My friends and I are already competitive, so the prize wasn’t really necessary as an incentive, but it does pay off if you win.

I can’t lie to you, dear reader, we haven’t put this system into practice yet. We actually came up with it this morning in math class after talking about how we hoped the entire upper learning population would show up to the homecoming game that night. But, I have a feeling this is going to incent us to go to as many Galloway-sponsored events as we can. Current juniors and seniors, who have been at Galloway for all of their highschool careers, should remember the Spirit App, which incentivized kids to come to games and theatre productions. I went to 10 or so basketball games my freshman year, and when the Spirit App faded away during sophomore year, I went to a total of zero games. This way, even if student association won’t reimplement the Spirit App, the competition for school spirit lives on.

We actually decided to add other events to the point system. Now, not only are Galloway events worth points, but so are events that happen outside of Galloway involving anyone in our group. You can get points for showing up at Chick-fil-A to visit a friend working or coming to my horse shows.

I can’t tell you if this point system will work. We haven’t tried it out yet. But if it functions at all like Spirit App did, I think it could be a great way to incentivize us to support our friends and our school. If you, too want to include your friends in this, our point system is pictured below.

By Caroline Parrish