This year at BSM, the holiday spirit is erupting from every homeroom door, reaching from the North Building all the way down to the basement. Mrs. Rebecca Meagher organized a competition to see who could best decorate their homeroom door for the holiday season. Students had to bring in their own decorations and materials from home and complete their door during the time given in homeroom. The winners of the competition received donuts and milk during homeroom.

BSM brought the competition back after several years without the door decorations. “Mr. [Mike Jeremiah] started it, and we had a ton of fun, and then it sort of fizzled out…Now with this year and having more time to dedicate to the challenge, we brought the holiday spirit back with a little Advent door decorating,” Meagher said.

The competition was especially necessary this year in order to bring levity to the student body and faculty of BSM. “The purpose has always been to creatively make our BSM environment a reflection of the season of Advent, and after the election, it became more important and brought a little lightness and sense of community back into the school,” Meagher said.

The judging was done by several members of the front office, including Mrs. Patrice Carlson and Mrs. Debbie Martinson. They were responsible for walking around every homeroom and evaluating every decorated door, deciding on one winner from the Senior High and one from the Junior High based on various criteria. “We ranked them based on creativity, best decoration of an office door, the message of the season, and original design,” Carlson said.

The Junior High winner was Mrs. Susan Hinnendael, from Room 128, and the Senior High winner was Mrs. Katy O’Brien’s, from Room 137. These two homerooms displayed the best message using creativity and originality. “The thing we all talked about was how Room 137 used a huge team effort and everyone was working together,” Martinson said.

The winning rooms appeared to show the most enthusiasm and teamwork, as well as strongly reflecting the advent season. They felt that like they had the best chance of winning if everyone was a part of it and made their own personal contribution.

The winning homeroom not only got donuts and milk, but they also got bragging rights over the whole school for being the most festive in the holiday season. “I feel pretty cool and pretty great for being so smart and creative with our class door,” sophomore Allie Brooks, a member of O’Brien’s homeroom, said.

To continue the trend towards unity that this year’s decoration has started, the school hopes to have even more decorations next year. “I’ll give us a B this year; I think we need a little more time in order to get a better turnout,” Meagher said. More time would lead to an earlier notice for the students who are competing and give them more time to plan and decorate.

Although this year was the first in many of holding the competition, BSM hopes to not only improve participation and excitement, but also brighten the Advent season to its fullest.