Spirit Week is the biggest week of the year for Alvirne, with students and staff partaking in various class activities. I don't know when the first Spirit Week started, but it's been a tradition for at least the last 40 years or so. StuCo organizes and manages the events for Spirit Week and determines what the themes and events are. Spirit Week in the 2000s was always held on the week of Columbus Day in October, then in the early to mid 2010's the week of Veterans Day in November, before moving to the week of Halloween in more recent times. Themes that are normally held are Morning Monday (PJ day), Wacky Wednesday, Class Color Day (FR = Red, SO = Blue, JR=Green, later White, SR= Maroon, later Black), and Bronco Pride Day (last day to coincide with the pep rally), in later years Halloween day was costume themed. Different classes gain points for various activities and how many students participate in the dress up days, with Video Night being one of the major prizes. Major activities include the Penny Drive, where each class nominates a teacher, the class that wins that gets their teacher to kiss one of the cows from the barn on Alvirne's front lawn, the Wacky Games, Tuesday Trivia, hall decorating (in the 2000s this was class poster decorations made and held in the cafe), and Veterans' Day leaf raking (when Spirit Week was on Veterans' Day week).
Class color day was suspended in 2003/04 and replaced with a different activity under Bryan Lane's tenure as principal, as classes started to vandalize cars and/or property with their respective class color. Class color day was reinstated in 2014.
Spirit Week culminates in a pep rally held in the gym, with various activities that match classes against each other. Usually, seniors win Spirit Week, although there have been a few upset victories by the junior class. The last time the juniors were first in Spirit Week was 1998, when they beat out the senior class of 1999.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of Spirit Week is Video Night, where classes put on skits that match with the assigned theme that they were given for that year. From 2002 to 2018 or so, the staff put on their own skit just for fun, but it appears as of 2019 that side tradition has ended. Video Night has been a staple of Spirit Week since the mid 80s. Video Night was suspended last year due to COVID, but hopefully it comes back. In the past, classes constructed mini model representations of their theme in the back of the gym. Video Night is graded on the video itself, and in later years, the backdrop and respective class posters in the gym. Normally, seniors have won video night as well, as they have had 3 prior Video Night experiences to put on the best show. There have been ties before with the seniors and another class. Only one time in Alvirne history has a freshman class come in first in Video Night, in 2001 when the freshman class of 2005 scored an upset victory over the senior class of 2002. They were that good that they won video night 2 more times, beating out the senior class of 2004 in 2003 and winning as seniors in their last video night in 2004, and came in second in 2002 behind the senior class of 2003. No freshman class has done this ever since.
There are videos available of prior Spirit Weeks and/or Video Nights listed by year and classes. I have tried to reach out to other people to see if they have coverage of the years I did not upload.
2002
This is the first video night there is coverage of. It was on an old VHS that StuCo had that I uploaded to YouTube. This is also one of the earliest productions done by Studio 19, Alvirne's video announcement and media program, as they launched around this time. Jan Moynihan-Cooney was the director of that program until 2008 when she became the English department head at Merrimack High School. Lauren Denis then became the director of Studio 19, which she still is today.
The theme of this video night looks like it was movie genres. The teachers had westerns, freshmen comedy, sophomores action, juniors mystery, and seniors fantasy.
Staff Video:
Freshmen (class of 2006):
Sophomores (class of 2005):
Juniors (class of 2004):
Seniors (class of 2003):
Fun facts: This is the first ever staff video that was performed. Sue Sawyer and Karen Bonney are the only remaining staff at Alvirne today that are in that video. Technology at the time did not include blacklights, which are used in almost every video night today, and there were "runners" that changed backdrops within scenes and advertised what the next scene was (today there's only one stationary backdrop but it's bigger). Seniors did not run onto the stage from their seats when their video ended, something the entire senior class does nowadays. This is the only senior video recorded that does not mention anything about a senior event, senior slogan, or graduation in the skit, something the senior class always finds a way to incorporate into their skit nowadays. The intro for this tape was this cool zoom in from space to Alvirne, in which the final image showed an old image of Alvirne without the CTE wing (even though it existed in 2002). The outro contained the original Studio 19 logo with "Life" by E-Type playing in the background (a Swedish eurodance group that didn't even have a song chart in the US).
2004
This contains the entire Spirit Week held on October 12-15, 2004, broken up into parts. The first part contains the staff, freshman, and part of the sophomore video. The second part contains the rest of the sophomore video, the junior, and most of the senior video. The third part contains the end of the senior video and the pep rally. In between are spirit week events, such as the cow kissing and Wacky Games.
The theme was Seasons, with the staff performing "Seasons of the School Year", the freshman class of 2008 with spring, the sophomore class of 2007 with fall, the junior class of 2006 with winter, and the senior class of 2005 with summer.
Fun facts: The "freshman chant" was definitely a thing then and 2 years later in 2006, even doing it before the freshman class video. It isn't done at Video Night anymore as points are taken off for negative behavior. At the pep rally, the upperclassmen are doing the freshman chant when it's time for the freshman battle cry. Also, Mr. Lane is leading battle cries for every class and the emcee for the pep rally, which nowadays the class presidents of each class do it and the StuCo president leads all Spirit Week events. The chant later became reserved for seniors and eventually kind of faded. The seniors had the longest tug of war I've ever seen in Spirit Week tug of wars. This is the only pep rally where the classes are seated in reverse (freshman and sophomores in the bigger set of bleachers instead of the juniors and seniors), perhaps the underclassmen were a big class then. The senior class created this interesting cardboard cutout of Mr. Lane in a bikini for their class video and gave it to him as a gift. Staff in the pep rally or video night footage that are still there today are Ellen Frenette, Sue Sawyer, and M. Vickie Ware.
2006
This contains the Spirit Week held in 2006. This is broken up into 4 parts. The first part contains the Spirit Week events, the teacher video, and senior superlatives. The second part has the freshman and most of the sophomore video. The third part has the rest of the sophomore video, junior video, and part of the senior video. The last part has the rest of the senior video and the pep rally.
The theme was "Generations", with the staff performing "When We Were Teens", the freshmen class of 2010 had toddlers, the sophomore class of 2009 had teens, the junior class of 2008 had senior citizens, and the senior class of 2007 had adults.
Fun facts: This would be the last Spirit Week compilation released as a DVD. This is also the last teacher video recorded that doesn't close with "I'll Be There For You" by the Rembrandts. Future uploads would go directly on YouTube, either by Studio 19, HCTV, or people who chose to upload content. Staff in the video night who are still there today include Sue Sawyer, Jen LaFrance, Karen Bonney. Staff in the pep rally that are still there today include Tom Daigle, Ellen Frenette, Seth Garon, Tarek Rothe.
2009
Only one video exists from this year's Video Night, it's on YouTube and it's the senior class of 2010's video. It looks like their theme was board games, as they have Monopoly.
The class of 2012's president, Robert Diamond, uploaded his class's Senior Video. The theme that year was decades, they had the 2030s. The 2012 Video Yearbook also contains portions of Spirit Week.
The 2012 Video Yearbook was a DVD produced by the senior class highlighting the main events that took place that year. It is broken up into 3 parts, available for viewing below.
2012
Two videos exist from this year's video night, the freshman class of 2016 with Hunger Games and the junior class of 2014 with Star Wars. The theme was movies.
This video night, in its entirety, was filmed by ZDawg761 on YouTube, and is the first video night to be filmed in its entirety since 2006. Thank you ZDawg761 for filming it! The videos are broken up into 5 parts. The 2013 video night's theme was Advertising Mascots. The staff had a whole range of mascots. The freshman class of 2017 had Allstate's Mayhem, the sophomore class of 2016 had Burger King and Dairy Queen, the junior class of 2015 had Lucky Charms, and the senior class of 2014 had Six Flags' Mr. Six.
Fun facts: The sophomore class of 2016 beat the seniors and won this year's Video Night. They are the first and so far only sophomore class to win Video Night on their own (sophomore class of 2007 tied with the senior class of 2005 in 2004). Former principal Bryan Lane was in the senior video as well.
2014
Hudson Community Television (HCTV) filmed the 2014 video night. That year's theme was supporting characters. The staff had Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang, the freshmen class of 2018 had Dory, the sophomore class of 2017 had Frozone, the junior class of 2016 had Agent P, and the senior class of 2015 had the genie from Aladdin.
Fun fact: Notice how the quality of the video is a lot better 10 years later in 2014 than in the 2004 video night/spirit week and how old that feels compared to 2014.
2015
Alvirne High School's Studio 19 filmed this year's Video Night on YouTube. This year's theme was high school social groups/stereotypes based on the Breakfast Club movie. The staff did an overview of high school life in general, the freshmen were the punks, the sophomores were the jocks, the juniors were the preps, and the seniors were the nerds. Studio 19 also did a brief overview of Spirit Week in their November 20, 2015 broadcast.
Fun fact: The pep rally featured a song done by Phil Fazioli, a teacher at the time, with his rendition of "Empire State of Mind", titled, "Alvirne State of Mind", complete with lyrics.
2016
A mostly complete Spirit Week video compilation was made in 2016 for the first time in 10 years, and modeled after the 2004 Spirit Week DVD. I was still a student at the time, so I was able to get more footage, and Studio 19 did not film Spirit Week or Video Night that year. The theme that year was Halloween movies. The staff did their own video dressed in costumes. The freshmen class of 2020 had Twilight, the sophomore class of 2019 were the Ghostbusters, the junior class of 2018 were Frankenstein, and the senior class of 2017 had Freddie Krueger.
Since I was in the senior video, I did not film that myself. Special thanks to Michele Buckley for filming the senior video. NOTE: Because of this, the pep rally is in the same video as the junior video (4th out of 5th video)
Fun fact: This is the last pep rally filmed at Alvirne on YouTube.
2017
Only one video exists from this year's Video Night, and it's the sophomore class of 2020 video. Heather Ochieng, parent of the AHS Class of 2020 President Ellie Ochieng, filmed this video. It's broken up into several parts, and I don't know what the theme was this year.
Two videos exist from this year's Video Night, and it's the freshmen and junior video. Heather Ochieng, parent of the AHS Class of 2020 President Ellie Ochieng, filmed this video. The theme this year appears to be superheroes, with the freshmen class of 2022 having Captain America and the junior class of 2020 having the Incredibles.
HCTV filmed this year's Video Night for the first time since 2014, and the first Video Night filmed in its entirety since 2016. This year's theme was Disney Channel Original Movies. The freshman class of 2023 had The Descendants, the sophomore class of 2022 had Teen Beach Movie, the junior class of 2021 had Camp Rock, and the senior class of 2020 had High School Musical.
Fun fact: This is the first time that a Video Night emcee was a Black woman, as Alvirne and the Town of Hudson have made strides in diversity over the years. This also appears to be the first time in a while that there was no staff video, and the "freshman chant" has made a return at Video Night (points probably aren't taken off for that anymore).
2020
Cancelled due to COVID.
2022 (March)
This Video Night was rescheduled due to COVID, instead of during Spirit Week it was held on March 18, 2022, making this the first Video Night to be held outside of Spirit Week and in March. HCTV filmed it, and the theme this year was Pixar Movies. The freshman class of 2025 had Monsters, Inc., the sophomore class of 2024 had the Incredibles, the junior class of 2023 had ??, and the senior class of 2022 had Toy Story.
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