Wiscasset Middle High School Student Council Co-President Gabrielle Leavitt said Spirit Week Oct. 26-30 was “definitely very different this year,” partly because, in the pandemic, the student council could not cap the celebration off with its annual haunted high school. “(That event) is a great fundraiser for student council and it’s a great community event that gets everybody really excited ...”

Without that event or mixer-dances that normally also raise funds, the student council expects “a financial loss” this year, Leavitt said. But she and technology integrator and student council advisor Deb Pooler said staff stepped up their participation in “Spirit Week,” including more of them dressing up for the theme days, to help make the week special.

“The staff really helped get everyone involved and excited this year even though everything was so different, and the student council did a great job running everything,” Leavitt said in a phone interview Sunday. “There was a lot more involvement than I’d seen in my last couple of years on student council, which is a great feeling. It all went really well.” 

“I was super impressed by so many teachers putting on costumes for the kids this year,” Pooler said via text. “They (were) really trying to make a bit of fun for their students!”

Pooler said students “loved it” when the school’s Wolverine mascot made a surprise visit to each class with small bags of candy to toss them. According to an email release Sunday from Principal Charles Lomonte, social studies teacher Cameron Bishop made a “valiant effort in donning the Wolverine costume and delivering a Halloween treat to all students in both groups A and B,” those in school Monday and ​Tuesday or Thursday and Friday in Wiscasset’s hybrid model this fall.

“Spirit Week was a success,” Lomonte wrote. “Our students loved the spoofy games, decorations and costumes and felt a glimmer of joy amidst the sterile environment of the pandemic. Our student council and all our staff made that happen in a special way for our students. Thank you for every staff member that helped (and) special thanks to Deb Pooler for keeping the school spirit torch burning!”

Leavitt’s favorite part of Spirit Week came after school on Friday, Oct. 30. She, Student Council Co-President Gwen Webber and Vice President Matt Eckert, all seniors, got to go to Wiscasset Elementary School to give out treats to students there “to kind of just send them off for their weekend and Halloween. It was really great to see all the excitement on the kids’ faces.

“I remember being young like that, and the little stuff like that made your whole week, and I know some of those kids probably didn’t get to go out trick or treating, so it was great.”