Every winter, usually two weeks before finals, freshman study halls and their Plainfield South Leadership Club leaders work together to decorate a door with a Christmas theme. Teachers can vote on the best one and the winners get a pizza party and second place gets a donut party.
PSLC leaders have been working with freshmen all semester and door decorating is the last thing they do together this semester.
“We’ve expected that they’ve created a climate of inclusion and made essentially tiny little teams throughout the building. It’s a nice way for everybody to get together and kind of celebrate their success together over the semester,” said Shantel Eagan, who is one of the creators of PSLC.
Eagan and Tim Boe both run PSLC together. It was actually their idea to bring door decorating to freshmen.
“We started the door decorating as a way to bring some holiday spirit and teamwork into the building,” Eagan said.
They both love that doors bring holiday spirit to the building. It also impacts students who do not participate in door decorating.
“I think it’s just fun to have our kids do this [and get us] in the spirit of the holiday season. Who doesn’t like seeing Santa Claus, elves and reindeer right so let’s put it on the doors of our classrooms,” Boe said.
Boe shares one of his most memorable doors from years past. It was a door with printed out pictures of gym teachers’ faces on it.
“It was interesting to see where they got those photos from. The kids actually did a lot of work to get those photos because they did not take the pictures they went out and found our photos,” Boe said.
Ashlee Jepsen, who used to be a freshman two year ago, wants freshman to be involved with door decorating and the experience of PSLC
“[Freshman] should because it’s a great experience to get involved with your school and with other people to interact with them,” Jepsen says.
Jepson shares how PSLC impacted her during her freshman year.
“They encouraged me to actually do my homework and be involved in school,” Jepson says.
Victoria Camarda, who is a past PSLC member, who goes to University of Tampa, comments how door decorating impacts freshmen.
“It gets them involved in wanting to [decorate]. It helps them bond with other kids in their class because it’s hard to become friends with kids in your study hall. You’re usually just doing homework,” said Camarda.
Camarda loved how excited they were when decorating.
“Sometimes it was hard getting them to participate but that’s something that they generally wanted to do. They had fun doing it and it was fun for [PSLC members] to do it too,’’ Camarda said.
