As Quarter 1 comes to an end and major events die down for a bit, leadership has less on their plate for a while. Leadership is an application-based elective class that is open to all grades and they work hard behind the scenes of major school events every year. They helped organize Homecoming by decorating, advertising, and picking the theme of both the dance and spirit week days. In addition to Homecoming, they also assist with pep rallies inside the gym and outside during lunch. With Homecoming season finished, a fun event planned solely for leadership is the upcoming Bigs and Littles on October 26th.
Bigs and Littles is a tradition for members who have just joined leadership that is similar to an initiation. This helps the group get closer and connect the different ages among the grade levels. On the first day of leadership, newly joined students would receive a letter from their “big.” These are students who have been in leadership for at least a year, basically veterans. They exchange letters anonymously, and eventually the “big” shares what their little will dress up as for the event. The bigs are aware of who their littles are, but the littles do not know who their bigs are until October 26th. A sophomore leadership little, Timmy Samples, shares his experience so far for this event: “I’m excited about it and have been looking forward to it for a while. I’m going to be dressing up as Dr. Seuss’s Thing 2 with a partner for a duo costume. I ordered the costume off of Amazon, and it came with all the essentials. Like the blue wig and red outfit with Thing 2 written on it. I have no clue who my big is yet, and we can’t plan anything until we finally figure out who our big is.” Some iconic characters people were seen dressed as last year were Megamind, Gru, Vector, the Minions, Princess Ariel, Sebastian, and King Trident.
This tradition has been going on for no less than 20 years as of now. The leadership supervisor, Coach Brainsfield, talks about his perspective on the occasion: “This is one of the traditions I inherited when I joined leadership. It’s a fun idea that serves as a team bonding sort of thing for the students, but sometimes the bigs get carried away and try to embarrass their littles with their character choices. Since the bigs remember what it was like when they had to dress up, they want to pass their experience on. The officers in leadership, which include the president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, parliamentarian, and two historians, are the ones who assign the bigs to their littles. Arrangements can be made if the situation calls for it, like if a big really wants a specific little. Since there are a lot of newly joined members this year, some bigs were assigned two separate littles. Once the bigs and littles are revealed to each other, the bigs give gifts to their littles in return for embarrassing them and to welcome them.”
For those of you interested in event planning or becoming more involved in school activities, Leadership could be in your future. Applications to join leadership will be available near the end of this school year. Leadership is a combination of fun and hard-working activities that can also create close bonds with your peers through events like Bigs and Littles. So be on the lookout for students dressed up as various characters to know who is a part of leadership, and feel free to ask them any questions you might have about the future of Seminole High.