Over the years, there's been several class traditions done by Alvirne High School students. Some of these traditions have become permanent, while others have come and gone for various reasons. If there's traditions I'm missing, please let me know. Some of these events I don't have pictures/video for.
Senior Shed Painting
The shed in between the football field and the tennis court was where each senior class made their presence known to all Alvirne visitors. The senior class would usually gather there on the last weekend in August before school started and buy a bunch of paint to go and decorate the shed with their names, pictures, and their class slogan and year on the roof. It was also an opportunity for the senior class to socialize as they haven't seen each other all summer (this was before cell phones and social media, which now makes it easy for friends to gather whenever), and lunch was usually provided as well. The class of 1999 was the last class to decorate the shed, as it became a liability issue after then.
Senior Parade
The Hannaford parking lot on Route 102 was where the senior class gathered early to participate in a car parade up Route 102 to Alvirne. The cars would be complete with decorations, names, and the class year drawn on their car windows. This was either held during Spirit Week or the first day of school, I'm not sure. The class of 2001 was the last class to do the senior parade, as that year (2000) the parade got into a small accident and backed up traffic on Route 102 that morning, and Mr. Lane ended that tradition after that.
Senior Class Portrait
In the first days of school in September, the senior class would gather outside for a class portrait to go on the inside cover of the yearbook. Some years it would just be a group portrait outside, while most years the class would make a formation on the front lawn with the last two digits of their class year. Starting with the class of 2002, this would be moved to the football field. The class of 2009 was the last to have this type of portrait, with the '09 in the inside cover of their yearbook. Other classes have done it for senior farewell videos, but it is not in the yearbook anymore.
This is different than the Senior Photo, which students go to a professional photographer to have a senior portrait done for their yearbook. Because of this, on school picture day, seniors would dress in the wackiest outfits to have their photo taken for their ID, as it wouldn't go in the yearbook. Seniors still do that today on picture day.
Senior Breakfast
It was a well established tradition in the 80s and 90s for students to gather at Howard Johnson's or Bickford's for breakfast on the first day of school with their classmates, and then arrive late to class. The senior breakfast was later moved to the parking lot of Alvirne in the late 90s, and was held sometime during Spirit Week first thing in the morning. In the 2010s the senior breakfast was moved once again to the first day of school, but remaining in the parking lot and before school started. This allowed for seniors to get their senior shirts and socialize for a bit.
Fun fact: Did you know senior shirts were not always maroon? They used to be white with a logo on them and the class year with their names on the back. They later became yellow in the early 2000s, then going back to white with a custom class logo ('05 had a really cool design) before going to maroon with the class of 2010, where it's been that way since.
Haunted Hayride
This is something that Class Act puts on every year for a few weekends in October. It is a ride on a cart in the back of a tractor in the Alvirne forest where Class Act is dressed up in costume giving people a bit of the spooks. Admission is open to all students as well as visitors.
Winter Carnival
This is something the school did when the school operated on trimesters, and it happened in the late 70s/early 80s. It was a Spirit Week like event where classes would decorate parts of Alvirne and hold events outside where classes could score points.
Elevator Wall of Fame
The original elevator at Alvirne, next to the gym, was put in when the school reopened in 1975. It was very small, and the interior resembled the mid 70s. The elevator had a stop switch, which students would use to stop the elevator between floors and open the door. They would write their names and the class year in the shaft, or in the doorway, and many students over the years have put their name in the "Elevator Wall of Fame". Sometimes, however, when students were done and they wanted to leave, the elevator would get stuck, and the fire department would have to come. Because students kept doing this, the elevator later was reserved for handicapped use only. The original elevator was decommissioned in 2015, a year after the new elevator in the main building was installed in 2014.
Class Dances
Classes would organize a few dances per year where students could socialize and then get down and have some fun. Usually one was held in September (back to school dance), Spirit Week (homecoming), winter (semi-formal), and spring (spring fling), and in some years an end of school year blacklight dance in June. Homecoming and semi-formal were organized by StuCo and have seen various changes over the years, and these were the two "dress-up" dances. These two dances originally included meals as part of the admission, and tables were set up inside the gym where the meal was served. Tables were then put away and the gym transformed into a dance hall for the evening (dances then regularly went until 11pm or midnight). The StuCo under Sara Conrad tended to go all out on decorations for both of these dances. Dances now are typically held from 7-10 pm and light snacks and refreshments are available in the cafe.
Two most notable dances include the 1997 semi-formal and the 2011 homecoming. The '97 semi formal was held and a snowstorm came during the dance, and power was knocked out about halfway through. This resulted in many calling from the pay phones (yes, Alvirne had a whole bank of them back then, near the cafe) or office phones for rides home. The 2011 homecoming featured a Kiss 108 DJ on hand, and was held on 11/11/11 and ended at 11:11 pm. The 2012 semi-formal featured a performance by Figure 8.
Saturday Night Live
The class of 2000 put on their own rendition of Saturday Night Live on February 19, 2000. Jan Moynihan-Cooney had this event on tape and uploaded it on YouTube to coincide with the event's 15th anniversary in 2015. Events included performances by Alvirne's band and choral groups, a performance by student group Citizen led by Jeff Mostrom, the Alvirne Update, Alvirne editions of Jeopardy and Who Wants To Win 100 Grand, and a class song thanking Jan for her time as their class advisor. This looks like something they wanted to make into a new tradition, but ended up being a one time thing.
Part 1: https://youtu.be/nZ8NGVxnixA
Part 2: https://youtu.be/xUjCFgOqU1E
Fun fact: A lot of these references in the video are dated. They poke fun at Litchfield students (as they went to Alvirne then until Campbell opened up in the fall of that year).
Dodgeball
Almost every year the senior class hosts a school wide dodgeball tournament. Groups come up with creative names for their teams, and vie to be crowned Alvirne dodgeball champions.
Mr. AHS
Male students show off their individual talents and skills in front of the Alvirne community and is judged by a panel. The person with the most points gets to bestow the title of Mr. AHS for that year. In recent years, male staff members have also participated to become Mr. AHS Sr.
Fun fact: Oddly enough there's never been a Ms. AHS competition. Perhaps in today's times, that opportunity may arise so female students can participate.
Hypnotist Show
This tradition started in the mid 2000s and is strictly reserved for the senior class, although the entire school can watch the show. StuCo hires a hypnotist where he performs his tricks on the seniors on the stage. Most people fall for his tricks, but there are a few that he just can't mesmerize.
PROM
This is one of the most significant senior events in the entire year, traditionally held in May, although sometimes it's been in April depending on what's available to book. In the 80s and early 90s, prom was almost always held at the Sheraton Tara Hotel ballroom in Nashua (now the Radisson). From the mid to late 90s through today, it's been at the Castleton function center in Windham, although the class of 2014 booked out the Atkinson Country Club.
Students back in the day would simply ask the girl/guy they wanted to go to prom with, but times have changed. Nowadays, most students perform a "promposal", which is a themed poster with a few desserts or flowers with a themed message that relates to the person they're asking.
People spend all day Saturday (or Friday) getting dressed up for the big event. Students take their prom pictures in many places, first at their house, then at Benson Park with family and friends (this used to be at the gazebo at the Pond View neighborhood, and if it's raining it will be in the cafe), before heading out on their limo to the Castleton, where they take even more pictures and spend a few hours having dinner and dancing.
Students then go to the class's "Prom House" at an undisclosed location (if they're invited), and spend the rest of the weekend having a good time. As part of this, most seniors participate in "Senior Skip Day", which is the one day of the year they get to skip school without penalty, the Monday after prom.
Unified Prom
This is a smaller event held by the Special Education department which allows for special needs students to participate in their own prom, held in the cafe. This tradition started in 2013/14 and has existed since, as Alvirne tries to provide more opportunities for special needs students in all areas.
Project Firework I (2012)
In 2012, the entire school did a lip-dub of Katy Perry's Firework highlighting all of the students and the opportunities Alvirne has in an interactive walkthrough of the school, called "Project Firework" It contained the staff at the time, the freshman class of 2015, the sophomore class of 2014, the junior class of 2013, and the senior class of 2012.
Fun fact: The YOLO reference that a student has a poster of is definitely reminiscent of 2012. A lot of the staff in this video have either retired, moved on, or have passed away. Staff that are in this video that are still there 10 years later include Tom Daigle, Seth Garon, Judy DeTour (Sidileau), Melanie O'Toole (Zdunko), Sarah Nassif (now the Foreign Language chair), Joyce Wise (White, now math chair), Kelly Fontaine, Lauren Denis, Officer John Mirabella, nurses Pat Begonis and Sue Ross, Ellen Frenette, Jodi Hallas (now vice principal), Eliana Buckley (Levine), Joan Blanchard, Jeff Peterson, Eiric Marro, Sue Sawyer. Cara Sevigny and John Hodgkins are now deceased. This was Bryan Lane's last school wide performance.
Project Firework II (2016)
The original Project Firework was a success, and so the Class of 2016 decided to do another version in June 2016 called the "Alvirne lip-dub 2016". It was very similar to the 2012 version but contains the class of 2016 in the football field at the end, and the rest of the classes in the gym for the regular ending, and is longer, containing 2 songs, "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World, and "Shake it Off" by Katy Perry. It contained staff, as well as the freshman class of 2019, the sophomore class of 2018, the junior class of 2017, and the senior class of 2016.
Fun fact: This is the second and last lip-dub project done by Alvirne. This one wasn't as much of a success as the first one, and COVID might have knocked out another lip-dub for now.
Senior Spirit Week
This is a spirit week reserved for seniors, where they do a few dress up days. They sometimes opt to do in addition to that a dirty cutoff week or other themed week depending on how strict administrators get with dress code. They do this toward the end of the year. One time, the juniors did their own spirit week when there was a two week gap between the seniors' last day and finals week.
Senior Cruise
The seniors enjoy a night of fun on a small event boat that sails around Boston Harbor for an evening, in a formal setting. This is one of the last major gatherings for seniors before graduation.
Senior Bonfire/Cookout
This is one last gathering out in the field, where seniors spend an evening roasting a few marshmallows while socializing. In some years, a cookout has been held near the tennis courts.
Awards/Yearbook Assembly
This is held on the last few days prior to graduation. Student awards are recognized and the yearbooks are distributed at this time, as well as the yearbook dedication. The senior farewell video that students produce is also shown to the audience, and seniors dress with their cap and gown on.
Graduation
This is the culminating moment of students' Alvirne career as they move on to other professions, whether that's college, trade school, the military, or into the workforce. Students participate in graduation practice a few days before graduation.
Graduation has been held on many dates and venues. When the school operated in a trimester format, it was usually held the last weekend of May or the first weekend in June. When the school changed to a yearly format in the 1986-87 school year, it was held in mid-June. Since then, the earliest graduation was on June 9, 2007 and the latest on June 19, 2010. The venue that it was always held at was the baseball field until the late 90s, when it moved to the football field as there were bleachers there. It was held on a Saturday afternoon when it used to be at the high school. When it rained, like it did at the 1998 graduation, it was moved inside the gym and students could only have 2 guests. In 2002, due to weather and to avoid a repeat of the '98 graduation scenario, administrators were able to move the graduation to the Verizon Wireless Arena, and on pretty short notice too. This was because the Verizon opened the year before and no one really tried graduations in that arena yet, so Alvirne was one of the first in that regard. The time was moved to Saturday morning as families now had to travel to Manchester and also to allow for post-graduation celebrations to occur. Graduates liked the new Verizon, and so Alvirne kept using it afterwards. In 2012, the senior class voted to make it on Thursday evening, where it's been since. The Verizon Wireless Arena (later the SNHU Arena) was used for graduations from 2002 to 2019. In 2020, due to COVID, graduation returned to Alvirne for the first time since 2001, on the baseball field. Students and their families were seated 6 feet apart in chairs, and graduates were called up by group. There then was a brief fireworks show afterwards. The 2021 ceremony was a more traditional format, but was still held at Alvirne, on the football field. The 2022 ceremony returned to the SNHU Arena for the first time since 2019, at the earliest date since 2007 (although not the earliest in time, since the '07 ceremony was in the morning).
Graduation starts with a procession, then the Pledge of Allegiance, introduction by the principal and dean of students, valedictorian, salutatorian, and class president speeches, then a song by the B-Naturals, principal's speech, the handing out of diplomas, closing remarks, and the procession out of the arena. Student speeches have ranged from a variety of topics, such as Alvirne/class experiences, college/professional tips and advice, social justice, and personal experiences. In recent years, closing remarks have included the recognition of students who had perfect attendance for all 4 years at Alvirne, as well as for the graduates to have one last moment of fun together. The graduates' journey at Alvirne officially comes to a close, as they move on to the next chapter of their lives.
Footage from Alvirne graduations from 2008 to present are available on HCTV by doing a search for "Alvirne graduation".
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