Kennedy Enjoyed A Successful Winter Week

From December 8th through December 12th, all high schools in Fremont, Newark and Union City participated in Winter Week. Winter Week is a week-long competition among all of the schools to see which school can gain the most points through participation in spirit days and donations to the coin drive.

During lunch throughout the week, the Round Room hosted performances and with free snacks for audience members as part of Winter Coffee House with opportunities to sign up for unplanned acts. On Monday, the audience welcomed a performance by the student band Sundale, while enjoying some chips. Guitar Club and Musicians performed on Tuesday with hot cocoa as the daily treat. On Wednesday, Korean Club, Polynesian Club and Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) all performed with Chex Mix as the snack of the day. On Thursday, students enjoyed Knots Berry Farm Shortbread.

Monday’s spirit theme was Merry Morning Monday, where students could gain spirit points for their school by wearing pajamas or other comfy clothes. The next day was Timber Tuesday, where students wearing flannel earned points. Wednesday was Winter Wonderland, where students earned points for wearing white. On Thursday, students were encouraged to “Bring their Holiday Sleigh” and carry around their stuff in anything but a backpack. The last spirit day was Unity Day, where students could earn spirit points for wearing school merchandise or their school colors.

The alternative way for schools to earn points was through the coin drive. Every dollar added to the student’s school’s jar gave the school two points, and every dollar added to another school’s jar took away one point from that school. The money raised from the coin drive went to each school’s associated student body (ASB) charity of choice. This year, selected charities include the Make-A-Wish Foundation, League of Volunteers, Tri-City Animal Shelter, United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and more. The money fundraised by Kennedy went towards St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital which helps children with cancer access free medical care and conducts research to work toward fewer deaths from cancer in the future.

Winter Week finally concluded on Friday with the Winter Rally. The theme of this year’s rally was the Nutcracker featuring performances from clubs such as Dhamaka, Creators and cheer as well as many games with the classes competing against one another, including a teacher fashion show which was won by the seniors.

Class of 2026 President Kaylee Montalvo (12) explained, “We figured out the theme first … and then we started to make the script which starts with us picking out all of the games and finding all the performers … and we work with marketing on all the murals.”

Preparations for Winter Week began months prior to December.

“We started rolling out and painting the big murals right after Fall Fest,” said ASB president Rodrigo Guzman (12). “The weekend after Fall Fest, me and committee heads planned out our entire vision. Because that was back in October, we had two months to plan.”

Ever since the end of October, the entire ASB class has been working on the decorations that covered the entire school throughout winter week. Then, on Monday, December 8th, the decorations were put up for the whole school to see. “We came here before seven to go around the school and make it look like all the elves came and decorated the school,” mentioned Ash Andrada (11), secretary for the class of 2027.

In the end, Kennedy triumphed in the Winter Week festivities with a total of 23,069 points and raised $1,581.34 for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.

“I’ve been in the program for thr

ee years and this is the best Winter Week I’ve seen visually. We put in maximum effort for the decorations across the school, and we just really wanted Kennedy to feel the winter vibe of Winter Week. I'm really proud of everything our class has achieved for this week,” Andrada concluded.

Photo by Kelly Orozco Hernandez | Students participate in winter rally games.