By Bob Wason and Rob Dotterer
Staff Writers
Get ready, Jamesville-DeWitt High School, J-D Day is almost here. On Friday, May 23, J-DHS will have its annual J-D day, a combination of fun activities and school events. One important event is watching the videos for students running for slate.
Social studies teacher Meghan McGee, the adviser of school slate, said she expects J-D day “to be a good time for all students.” Principal Paul Gasparini said he has high expectations for the day. “J-D Day is a great celebration of everything we have at the school,” said Mr. Gasparini; “for all of the freshmen who haven’t had a J-D Day, just come and enjoy all of the fun activities and food with your friends.”
The first half of the day, students go to their normal classes, but each class will be only 40 minutes long. At 10:50 a.m., after sixth period class is over, students will be dismissed to the auditorium to watch the videos for the different groups of students running for slate. At 11:30 a.m. students will be sent to their homerooms to get yearbooks if they purchased them. At 11:45 a.m., students will be allowed to leave homeroom and go outside to participate in the different activities available and to buy their lunch from the food being sold by different clubs. Some of the food and drink options will be pretzels, pizza, brownie sundaes, Kool-Aid, and Gatorade. J-D Day will end at 2:15 p.m. and students will be dismissed then as usual.
For freshmen and even some students in other grades, J-D Day is a new experience. “I have no idea what it’s going to be like,” said freshman Kristina Bell; “I’m really excited to see what it’s like.” Other freshman have heard more about the J-D day festivities. “My brother told me that it was fun,” said freshman Ben Wormuth; “I’m excited to see what happens, because I obviously haven’t gone before.” Junior Greg Wozniak is looking forward to his first J-D Day; “I got here in the fall and have been looking forward to this day ever since Mr. Gasparini told me about it then. It is going to be a new and fun experience for me.”
Many students and faculty who have already experienced J-D Day at J-DHS are getting excited for the day. “I’m really excited to have half of a school day devoted to fun stuff,” said junior Jake Binder; “my favorite part is watching what all of the different groups running for slate came up with for their videos.” Junior Hillel Matasar says his favorite part of J-D Day is “all of the sweet food and drinks.” Student Counselor Will Hartley says the day is best described as “euphoria. The day will be full of rampant excitement. I encourage everyone to come so they can see the senior softball team get crushed by the teachers,” said Mr. Hartley.
Another common feeling around J-DHS is that J-D Day is a nice break. “Last year was fun,” said sophomore Owen Volk; “It’s a good time to relieve stress before finals.” Volk’s brother, Dylan, shares the feeling; “late May and June is the time when school becomes the most stressful, so it’s great to have a day like this to look forward to (in order) to relieve the stress of finals and Regents.” “I really need a day like J-D Day just to have a nice break in between all of the hecticness of the end of the school year,” said sophomore Charlie DiGristina; “last year was great, so this year should be even better.”
J-D day promises to be a day jam-packed with activities. One of the highlights will be the free performance by singing and dancing sensation Jordan VanStry. The performance will be on the stage in the auditorium after the students running for slate show their videos, and the performance will be the inaugural performance of the “Van Takeover” tour. “My goal is to just have fun and go with whatever happens. This will be the first performance of the tour, so hopefully it gets off to a good start,” said VanStry.
J-D day will be on Friday, May 23 and Ms. McGee encourages all to attend.