Gateway Regional School District

GATEWAY REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT 12 Littleville Road Huntington, MA 01050

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Kelly McCarthy, Public Relations Intern (413) 685-1003

Annual ‘Reindeer Games’ launch holiday spirit

Huntington –Gateway High School’s annual Reindeer Games were held the day before the holiday vacation began.

The games have been a tradition, hosted by the student council, for around eight years. This year’s event took place in the high school gymnasium from noon to 2 on December 23rd

According to student council advisor Diane Uliana, the sole purpose of this event was to get everybody in the high school together to have fun before the holiday break. It is also a chance for each class to earn school spirit points and to brew up some friendly rivalry. At the end of each school year, the Spirit Trophy is awarded to the class that has earned the highest number of spirit points.

Each year, the student council offers a new competition for the Reindeer Games. The new event for the 2009 games was called The Polar Bear Toss. Based on the idea of a traditional “egg toss”, the students (or “polar bears”) had to catch slippery squish toys (or “fish”) using oven mitts. Other activities included: wrapping a human present, musical chairs, and the highly anticipated “snow ball fight” (e.g. dodge ball). Uliana describes musical chairs as her favorite event because, “Everyone has the same enthusiasm as if they were still little kids.” Each class fielded teams in each event, and received additional points for every class member dressed in their team colors: seniors wore black, juniors blue, sophomores green, freshman white, and faculty red.

Let the games begin! At the start of the Reindeer games the spirit points stood as follows: freshman 155, sophomores 172, juniors 178, and seniors 271. By the end of the games the seniors still pulled out first, although they did not dominate the majority of the events. A group of seniors pulling Santa, Alex Hoey, in his sleigh entered the gymnasium starting off the games with excitement. The rest of the senior class, in the bleachers, quickly descended and followed the pack for a few laps around the gym. And with the sound of holiday music, the games began. Sophomores took the first two events, human present wrapping and the polar bear toss, with the seniors placing second. The juniors won the musical chairs event, although there were quite a few close, controversial calls. However, the final event—the dodge ball tournament—was a very close race between the juniors and seniors, with the seniors eventually prevailing.

District telephone: (413) 685-1000 Fax: (413) 667-8739 The event also included the highly anticipated faculty game, with the juniors earning the honor of competing with the faculty team.

Everyone left the games pumped up and ready for the holidays. The 2009 Reindeer Games were a very successful, well-organized event thanks to the Gateway High School Student Council! ###

Members of the Class of 2010 cheer on their team during December’s Reindeer Games.

District telephone: (413) 685-1000 Fax: (413) 667-8739 Faculty judges watch closely as students scramble for chairs during Advisor Uliana’s favorite event—musical chairs.

District telephone: (413) 685-1000 Fax: (413) 667-8739