SK breaks out traditions for first-day celebrations
Published 1:30 am Thursday, September 7, 2023
The first day of school is a time of celebration, but how schools and families choose to celebrate has led to a number of inspirational traditions.
At least two such traditions exist within the South Kitsap School District—one that welcomes its younger students with exuberant cheering in hope of a good school year and another that allows seniors to reflect at the earliest moment of their final high school year.
South Colby Elementary demonstrates the former in a tradition dating back to the days when school board Director Brian Pickard served as principal. Students arriving for day one are welcomed right out of their bus or car by a tunnel made up of the school’s faculty, staff, volunteers and others.
With music playing over speakers, students are given the rock star treatment while exchanging high-fives and fist bumps if not a special hug from a former teacher. South Colby calls it the Tunnel of Hope, and it’s impossible for school staff like principal Anna Munson to not smile about it. “It’s a way to begin the school year joyously, with excitement and just fun and kind of celebrate everything that these kiddos get to do,” she said. Mae Hawkins, one of the volunteers in the tunnel line, added: “It’s the happiest day of the school year. The kids are just ready to go.”
The Tunnel of Hope gives introverted and extroverted kids alike the first-most knowledge that they are welcome at South Colby and then the encouragement to study hard and do their best. It’s a message that both sides can get behind as teachers and staff return to their daily work. “The adults love it,” Munson said. “Most of the kids love it, and then you’ll see the nervous ones who aren’t quite sure, but by the time they make it all the way through, they’re OK.”
Meanwhile, the start of the year has a different feeling for those who can now see the light at the end of the tunnel: South Kitsap High School’s seniors. It’s a feeling the class decided to take in a day early this year, waking up in the dark hours of Labor Day morning to meet at Manchester’s Pomeroy Park for the annual Senior Sunrise. It’s a tradition that helps students of such a large number come together with one goal in mind: to finish the year.
While not the most ideal weather for a good sunrise in addition to the colder temperatures, being a part of the early morning tradition was worth fighting the cold for seniors like Lola Pagel. “It’s something the seniors do every single year, and now we are those seniors,” she said. “Instead of hearing about it, we’re at it.”
District officials say the tradition has two parts—the latter of which will come at the end of the school year with the setting of the sun on their last days as a SKHS student.
