Falcon Pride Day Uplifts CRLS
November 30, 2018
Falcon Pride Day is an annual celebration at CRLS hosted the day before Thanksgiving break. The celebration takes place from 8:05-12:00 instead of 8:05-2:30 such as a regular school day. This stress-free atmosphere caused by the lack of classes is great because it allows for the purpose of Falcon Pride Day to truly materialize. These purposes include strengthening the school bonds alongside exhibiting the internal pride we have as a community at CRLS. In order to bring this into fruition, the student body divulged into a variety of activities which involved showing off their unique qualities and interests.
This year’s Falcon Pride Day follows the precedent of separating grades and learning communities in order to target certain groups which have different affiliations to each other.
First, grades are separated and divided into four rotating stations: the Main Cafeteria, fieldhouse, gym and auditorium. Within these stations, different types of activities take place.
In the Main Cafeteria, students took part in karaoke, donut eating contests, and video games—while Student Government sold items like popcorn and gear from a wheel of fortune.
Then, the fieldhouse involved a huge dodgeball tournament amongst the learning communities in each grade. For seniors, Learning Community (LC) C competed against LC R, and LC L went up against LC S. The winners of those two competitions would then play against each other, and LC S ultimately won.
Senior Thalia Willis said, “I was happy to see my LC win. Being a part of a group and being able to see my group work together, in spite of not always being able to communicate as a whole—was really cool. It is ironic because this newfound pride I have for my learning community, wouldn’t have been so strong if it weren’t for Falcon Pride Day.”
As for the gym, organizers held typical field day activities for willing participants. These activities included a hilarious dance-off that took place at midcourt, a 3-point contest for a chance to show off some skill, fascinating potato sack races, and a giant tug of war game between two different sides of the gym.
Last but not least, the activities in the auditorium were hosted by seniors Peter Fulweiler and Casey Torres. This station was filled with various performances from the multiple clubs in CRLS. Some of the acapella groups that performed were Pitch- es and Dos who sang “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk, Girls Next Door who performed “She Used to be Mine” by Sara Bareilles, Sassafras who sang “Bills Bills Bills” by Destiny’s Child, and Tonal Eclipse who performed “Youngblood” by 5 Seconds of Summer. In addition to these performances, there were also performances by the Step Team, Haitian club, K-Pop club, the school musical Honk!, and an urban dance group (members of the group include Torres, Jalen Kai, and Cesar Nevas).
Torres, a host and performer in the auditorium events, felt honored for the roles he was able to play at Falcon Pride Day. “Being able to perform in itself is a blessing and I’m grateful for that, so for the school to ask me to perform and host two years in a row is truly amazing,” he said. “Being a host as well as a performer is great because it’s an outlet for me as an artist, and is also an outlet which can help people pay tribute to others such as the tribute I helped lead for the great XXXTentacion.”
Ultimately, the Falcon Pride Day activities are not only a great break from school work, but they are a great way to make our school community a better place. The interests and activities enjoyed on Falcon Pride Day create an environment where students can both have a half-day of fun, and express themselves while being accepted by others. If it weren’t for performances such as those in the auditorium or activities such as those in the main cafeteria, fieldhouse, and gym—not only would segwaying into vacation be a lot harder but CRLS as a whole would not be as close-knit of a community. This is why Falcon Pride Day has been successful in the past and will continue to be successful in the future.
To summarize the effect that Falcon Pride Day had this year, School Committee Representative Antonio Escallon ’19 stated, “Everything went pretty smoothly, especially with kids showing off their amazing talents in the show. My favorite part of the event was at the end when all of the upperclassmen gathered around the gym and did a similar ritual to the one that the football team does before games.” He continued, “All in all, I think Falcon pride day does a great job of celebrating school integrity and bringing the school closer together, through the events which are held within the celebration.”
Mina Hasan also contributed to this article.
This piece also appears in our November 2018 print edition.
