By Leah Schmalz
West Stanly High School’s mascot may be a colt, but the students, faculty and staff are letting out a roar. Less than two weeks ago, they recorded a video for Katy Perry’s song “Roar” as part of a national contest to have the music star perform at the school. While that prize might be enough to motivate any school to participate, the underlying goal for WSHS was a boost in school spirit.
![Principal Kim Page, left, holds this sign on the side of 24-27 each morning to raise awareness for the school’s video on YouTube. Teacher Karen Brown, right, was one of the main organizers of the video. PHOTO IS FROM VIDEO]()
Principal Kim Page, left, holds this sign on the side of 24-27 each morning to raise awareness for the school’s video on YouTube. Teacher Karen Brown, right, was one of the main organizers of the video. PHOTO IS FROM VIDEO
Karen Brown, who teaches family consumer science at WSHS, was one of the driving forces behind the video. “If we don’t win, we already have,” she said. According to Brown, increasing school spirit has been a focus of the faculty recently due to the ways it improves attendance and classroom dynamics. “When they’re having fun and they like coming to school, then…they want to do good at school. They start embracing that whole thought of doing well in the classroom,” she said. Principal Kim Page agrees. “This is the best drop out prevention we could ever have,” she said.
The school spent two and half days recording the video before and after classes and during lunch, so as not to cut into instruction time. Art teacher Tim Kroll assisted with the recording and production. The video went live on YouTube around 9:30 am on Sunday, September 29. Since then it’s reached more than 30,000 views. It has also been featured several times on “Good Morning America,” the host of the contest.
In each scene of the video is a piece of the school’s identity. The explosion of powder at 0:14 references a previous football game where the students threw white powder after each touchdown. Everyone in the school is familiar with the serenades of Willie Gillum, so he is shown singing in the following scene. The goats at 0:50 reference the agricultural department at the school. The group of girls with their feet in a kiddie pool at 1:34 is the swim team, holding a sign with the name of a member injured in a car accident just before the video was shot. “We are roaring by succeeding in all these areas and showing who we are as a school,” said Brown. “We tried to get things that were representative of all different aspects…to recreate the realism of what West Stanly is.”
“Good Morning America” will reveal the finalists next week, culminating with the announcement of the winner on October 18. While Brown and Page are confident in the school’s chance of winning, they also recognize that the true awards lie in the positive response from the students and the opportunity to give others a glimpse of what goes on at WSHS. This won’t be the last effort they make to raise school spirit, either. “When all of this is over we’re going to have to find something else,” said Page. Brown agreed. “We’re just so excited to see kids embracing this, “ she said. “We’re hoping that’s going to set a precedence to continue.”
