Last Friday, Fallston High School students finished their first week back to school with a Welcome Rally, catching everyone up on clubs and other events for the upcoming school year! 

The cheerleaders started off the assembly by bringing back some school spirit and teaching all the students the chants and cheers they do at football games, one being “That’s The Way We Get Down,” which is a fan favorite, allowing students to participate when their grade is called.  

Students also got lots of information on the clubs for the school year, such as the French, Spanish, and German clubs, the grade level councils, and some brand-new things like Morgan’s Message.  

Morgan’s Message is a national organization created in honor of Morgan Rodgers who was a wonderful person, student, and athlete who struggled with anxiety in high school, which got worse when years later, she suffered an injury that would stop her from playing the sport she loved: lacrosse. Once she lost lacrosse, she began to privately struggle with anxiety and depression, which unfortunately ended in suicide. Fallston’s chapter is led by junior Sydney Grafton and will work to encourage and raise awareness for student-athletes to not hesitate to find resources for physical and mental health. 

Morgan’s Message is one of seven clubs under the Mental Health Council (MHC), which is also new this year. The other six clubs are One Love, Girl Up, Active Minds, the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA), Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), and Voices of Equity. The MHC consists of the student-leaders of the aforementioned clubs and will work to unite the school in their fight for equity, taking down stigmas, and advocating for student needs. School Phycologist and advisor for the club, Ms. Batten says, “We just want to make sure everyone has as many opportunities as possible to participate in [the clubs].” 

A few days prior to the assembly, Ms. Ryan and Ms. Grant took to the morning announcements to ask homerooms to have Rock, Paper, Scissors tournaments and name a winner for their individual homeroom. Then during the assembly, the winners were asked to come on stage and compete in another tournament which would crown one final winner. The last match pitted sophomore Brooke Bolesta against senior Arianna Pross and ended with a Bolesta win.  

However, the most exciting game was crowd-surfing, where eight students from each grade were chosen to work together to get one person from their team across the stage on the back of a table. It sounds confusing, I know, but it was very fun to watch and even more so when juniors won (speaking from a junior’s viewpoint)! 

After the excitement, we got some enjoyable announcements from the drama company as they announced their fall and spring shows by playing a trailer for each. The fall play will be “You Can’t Take It with You,” a comedy about an engaged couple trying to get the approval of their families, when one might be trying to get the other out of their home. 

And the spring musical will be “Little Shop of Horrors,” which tells the story of a flower shop assistant who found a plant that feeds on human flesh and blood and leads to many troubling situations.  There will be an interest meeting for prospective cast and crew after school in the auditorium on Thursday, September 14th. Best of luck to everyone who is or will be a part of the drama company! 

Now, how did everyone do showing school spirit, you may ask? Well, for it being the first week of school, not too bad. Each grade was asked to wear their school colors (freshmen had to wear brown, sophomores wore orange, juniors wore yellow, and of course seniors wore white) and for the most part they did! 

The Roar Rally was a good finish to the first school week and a good start to the school year. It reminded everyone about the opportunities available to them to get involved and showed how fun it is to have school spirit! What would a school be without it? 

This Welcome Rally set expectations high for the Pep Rally in the fall. So, students, start planning your outfits now!