For years Plano has had a rivalry with Allen High School, our friend to the north. Every year when the Allen game comes around, students become very passionate about whom the champion is going to be. PALS decided that the students could use a boost in their school spirit to prepare for the game.
     “The Allen game is a big deal,” senior PALS student Caitlin Steves said. “To make the spirit with our school bigger we decided to do a 80s themed week, to increase school spirit and get the student body united as one.”
     The theme for the week of September 20-24 was chosen based on how well the students would react and actually participate.
     “The 80s seem to be a decade that a lot of the students like,” Steves said. “Also we chose it because it was a theme that was thrown out there that [all the PALS kids] liked.”
Participation in 80s week varied from day to day. Steves believes on average about a third of the school participated on any given day.
     “I would say 35-40% of the students dressed up on athletic day,” senior PALS student Jordan Hillman said. “But on days like 80s music people didn’t really participate. I would say the themes would have been pretty easy to get dressed up for, but I guess it really wasn’t.”
     Junior Courtney Weisell participated in four out of the five days. The theme that she didn’t participate in was Saved By the Bell because she didn’t know what that meant. Her favorite theme was 80s music day.
     “I grew up listening to 80s music,” Weisell said. “I was always into the 80s, so I decided to dress up and represent that. I was shocked by the majority of students that participated.”
     The themes for the different days were chosen based on their relevance during that decade. PALS anticipated some of the days to be more popular than others. They also believe that the best 80s theme day, by participation, was neon day
     “We wanted to choose themes that people would actually participate in,” Steves said. “Neon colors were big. Lately people have been wearing neon. Everyone loves and refers back to 80s music, and athletic day was probably the easiest to go all out in.”
      Both Steves and Hillman agree that the seniors had more spirit and better participation.
     “I think it’s just because we like to have more fun,” Steves said. “I personally participated in everyday except ‘80s music day.”
     “The seniors won,” Hillman said. “But the juniors did a good job too.”
      Weisell would participate in another spirit week if PALS were to create one.
     “I would love to see a theme day with either movie or TV characters,” Weisell said. “We would do that at Vines and people really got in to it.”