Members of the senior class at JWP, including the snow week court.
Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton students enjoyed many activities during Snow Week from Monday, Feb. 10 to Saturday, Feb. 15. From dressing like a typical tourist in Hawaii to repping their favorite team in a jersey, students got to enjoy a little extra school spirit thanks to the Minnesota winter.
It made this editor wonder…how much work goes into planning a Snow Week? I graduated from JWP but never knew how the Snow Week court was formed or any other behind-the-scenes from the student council side of things planning such a winter-themed week; I never was on the student council. So, we decided to ask current council members, President Sophia Coulsey and Vice President Brielle Bure, how it all works.
As expected, nearly all the planning happens after homecoming. “We don’t have much of a timeline,” Coulsey explained. “Most planning happens right as homecoming ends, but we’re always thinking about what we’ll do moving forward. It’s easier to collect ideas throughout the year than to struggle and scramble only a few months before.”
On occasion, new things have been added to make Snow Week more enjoyable. For example, JWP and St. Clair like having fun with their snow week and homecoming candidates with some form of “guess the candidate.” While it’s fun getting to know the candidates more and laughing at their expense, this year’s coronation included a “Game Master” sash – one for the boys and another for the girls – which meant there was something in it for the candidates to guess the most answers right.
Coulsey and Bure claimed that the Mr. and Mrs. Lips competition during the homecoming coronation inspired the “Game Master” sashes. “We thought of that at the last second,” Bure added. “We thought it would be cool to have something like that.”
Other lunchtime activities, such as karaoke, were also popular. While that activity got plenty of engagement, Coulsey noticed that bingo was among the most popular. “It seems to be the most popular thing we do, and it’s great because it’s so simple to organize. The James family was very nice in letting us use their bingo machine for it, too.”
Jr. High students during pep fest 
Members of the senior class at JWP, including the snow week court. 
Junior classmates 
JWP freshmen boys 
JWP freshmen girls 
JWP cheerleaders doing a routine before pep fest 
JWP freshmen 
Student Council President Sophia Coulsey and VP (and snow queen) Brielle Bure during Hawaiian Day 
Students playing rock-paper-scissors for beads. 
Seniors during tug of war 
Freshmen during tug of war 
Musical chairs champion Christian Reyes 
Musical chair participants with their buddies. 
Students react to Ms. Oelke telling them to wear the belts they collected during musical chairs 
Students during musical chairs 
The dress-up days this year were organized differently, too. While white-out day is usually on Friday, it was moved to Thursday this year due to Valentine’s Day. Instead, Friday was “Red and Pink Day” to celebrate the holiday of love. The rest of the dress-up days – PJ Day on Monday, Hawaiian Day on Tuesday, and Jersey Day on Wednesday – were choices made deliberately simple for students.
“We wanted to pick themes that fellow students wouldn’t have a hard time finding outfits for,” Coulsey said.
“It’s great to see everyone else dress up and not just the student council,” Bure added.
The school week’s send-off was the Pep Fest on Friday, Feb. 14. This event featured most of the same activities as the past two years: musical chairs, tug-of-war, dodgeball, snow week, and homecoming courts facing off in a bubble-ball battle.
Junior high student Christian Reyes won the musical chairs competition, beating several senior high students like second-place senior Eli Rolfson, third-place junior Nevaeh Weimert, and senior Presley James, who won a round of musical chairs at the homecoming pep fest. The seniors – who bent the rules a bit – ultimately won the tug-of-war competition, with the sophomores in second. The sophomores got their revenge, though, beating the seniors to win dodgeball. After that, the seniors got their chance to take on the staff.
The bubble-ball battle was fun to watch. The pairings included the snow week, homecoming kings facing off, and a twin-sister battle between Claire and Paige Walz. Homecoming king Isaiah Berndt defeated Snow Week king Eric Daschner, but Claire got the Snow Week court a victory by defeating Paige in a best-of-three matchup. The teachers even had some fun with the bubble ball, with Sam Schruin getting two turns, including a challenge by science teacher Anna Ammerman, who defeated fellow teacher AJ Seibert.
While many may think of the pep fest as their favorite activity, Coulsey and Bure were looking forward to the dance, a neon-themed evening on Saturday, February 15. “It’s my favorite activity this year because of all the planning that’s gone into it,” Coulsey said. “We had a dance when we were freshmen, so we wanted to bring it back for this year’s Snow Week.”
Bure agreed. “It’ll be fun. We just need people there.”
Snow Week is often seen as the lesser school spirit celebration of the year. It occurs during winter and doesn’t carry the same weight as homecoming. However, both Coulsey and Bure hope to see Snow Week grow and perhaps become as prominent as homecoming.
“We were hoping to flip the script this year and make Snow Week more interesting,” Bure said.
Coulsey added, “We wanted to add more activities in hopes that the other student councils pick it up in the future. We want to keep it alive and make it as fun as homecoming.”
They did a good job of making this year’s Snow Week a fun one, and they took advantage of Valentine’s Day falling on a Friday. With this year’s festivities closing out, there’s hope that next year’s Snow Week could be as entertaining. Whatever happens, we’ll be there to cover it.
