By Kevin Mittal’15, Middle School Editor

February, the middle school council had their largest event of the year. Winterfest, which is a social for students to play in the gym or swim in the pool attracted almost all of the students in the middle school. The day is usually spent with activities that make people feel comfortable and not self-conscious which, in the awkward climate of middle school, is a gift.”It is an unstructured event and gives kids a chance to have fun,” explained Mr. Ashburn, the middle school principal. The school council spends months planning for this and there is always a huge turnout. “It’s my favorite bash of the year,” commented Stephen Skydel’15. A large factor of the excellent student support is because of the fact that the entire event is school council founded, or in other words, free.

This year the event took place on February 4, 2011. Around this time the school had been closed several times due to snow days. However, “the snow wasn’t a problem for me, and I doubt any other parents would not want their children go because of it,” reported a satisfied parent. A favorite activity every year is the cookie decorating ceremony. Each student in the middle school at the event comes to a table outside the gym, and decorates their own cookie with different colored icing.

There were a lot of new qualities to Winterfest this year as well. One included the new Velcro wall. For three hours there was always a line for students to put on a sticky suit and jump on to the sticky, inflatable wall. It was tricky because it required excellent timing of jumping and aim. There was also a ping-pong table and a game cube set up for the kids to play Mario Kart. In the background, student Will Zaubler’15 created a music playlist that was playing. Kids were playing volleyball, basketball, and some were swimming in the open pool. In the words of the middle school principal, Mr. Ashburn, “The event was a great success.”