Pep Club is in charge of all things East spirit. They plan seasonal assemblies, choose themes for sporting events and create fundraisers for the student body, intending to increase participation at school sponsored events.
“The purpose of Pep Club is in its name,” says club executive Taylor Sawalich. “It’s to showcase East’s school spirit. [Pep Club] creates events that everyone will love and recognizes sports teams, clubs, etc. for their accomplishments.”
Pep Club is sponsored by art teacher Jodi Schnackenburg and science teacher Jennifer Davis. It is also overseen by assistant principal Britton Haney. However, senior student executives Taylor Sawalich, Emily Chisholm, Kylie Relihan, Bonnie Longan, Aidan Epstein and Bella Shirazi typically lead the club and their meetings.
Every Tuesday morning in room 205, the club meets to brainstorm exciting new ideas and work on the upcoming assembly. The meetings are open to everyone, so any Lancer can propose new ideas to the club and bounce them off other members. The ideas are funded through a budget given to them by the school, and the money has been used to purchase things like spirit flags and props for assemblies.
“I’m always about trying to find new ways to spend our money,” said Haney. “[Purchases like] the spirit flags have been a very nice addition to East.”
In 2015 alone, Pep Club hosted a Lancer lip-sync competition, held a student-teacher human foosball match and helped shave basketball coach Shawn Hair’s hair for cancer during a pep assembly. Through these activities, East students have been given a chance to show their spirit and take part in school events.
“Pep Club means making East students proud to be Lancers,” Sawalich said. “We listen to the student body so that we can create fun and exciting events that raise school spirit, get students excited to attend school events [and] make high school a memorable time.”
View our pep assembly galleries here or read more about the spirit flags here.