Upgraded Bleachers and Dancing Teachers

On 24 March 2015, nearly two hundred MGCI students gathered in the gymnasium at lunch to participate in the first pep rally of the year. Primarily organized by the Athletic Council, the event was originally created to recognize winners of intramural sports. The celebration expanded to welcome the new bleachers and promote school events that took place in the past few months.

The event began with music playing from the speakers. Trophies were given out to winning teams, and their pictures were taken. A $10 Tim Horton’s gift card was advertised as the prize for a dance competition. Students took coaxing to participate, so the cougar mascot and teachers, including Ms. Tharshan, took the stage. Many students were impressed by Mr. Hillman’s dance moves.

Overall, students were glad to finally have more visually appealing, lower maintenance bleachers that were relatively quick to set up and put away. One thing that students liked was the “MGCI” stamped on the bleachers. The new bleachers are controlled with a simple remote, making it much easier for the teachers to operate. According to Mr. Hillman, who supervised the pep rally, these bleachers can fit up to approximately five hundred students. “It’s perfect for assemblies and other events, when we need to seat a majority of the school,” he explains.

Hajra Arif , the Athletic Convener, expressed her opinion on the new bleachers: “For me personally, I’m really happy that the students don’t have to sit on the ground to watch their teams play home games. And even when they did watch the home games sitting on the ground, there wasn’t enough space and some ended up standing in the back just to see. Along with the students, some peoples’ parents like to come watch, and it’s really nice now that they would have a comfortable place to sit.”

She also added that there was a slight problem with the left bleacher before the pep rally. However, the issue was quickly resolved. “For the pep rally, I think the bleachers were a huge success. The students love how they look, and no one can really fool around without being seen by the admin… I think it was pretty good for our first big event in the gym.”

Some students like Zayn Ahmed, a grade 12 attendee, thought that the pep rally was “well organized” and “enjoyable.” However, it was not perfect. As other events had been taking place in the gym before the rally, it only began halfway through the lunch period. There was also some miscommunication between the organizers, resulting in a delay in setting up the bleachers, speakers and table.

Rally host and Student Council President Ejay Vidad remarked that “participation from the crowd could have been better… If people were more open to step out and show off their dance skills, that would’ve been better.”

Hajra said that “we were also having a lot of technical difficulties with the music. As for the basketball game, it ended up being mostly male senior students against the teachers, but the students that were females or from younger grades back off when they see the large crowds.”

The rally was supposed to continue the Tuesday after the Easter Break. However, this never occurred, and students were left wondering why no such event took place.

In the end, the point of the rally was to entertain the students, and was arguably successful with the dance-off.  The Athletic Council hopes to continue to attract students to the gym with such events, and promises to have many more surprises for students in the future.