"Spudtacular,” the staff chili cookoff, will take place on Wednesday at 11 a.m. in foods teacher Samantha Abel’s room.
Ten to 20 teachers will bring home-cooked chili and admin and support staff will bring toppings and baked potatoes — inspiring the name “Spudtacular.” The competition has been held for the past three years and usually lasts about two hours, giving staff time to socialize and eat during their lunch periods, according to math teacher Elizabeth Landry.
“A lot of times when we only get 20-25 minute lunches, we're just in our little circle,” Landry said. “But this gives us an opportunity to talk and eat lunch with people from all of the different departments that we don't get to see regularly, and just laugh and close out the first semester.”
The judges for the chili cookoff change each year, but in the past, school resource officers, cafeteria ladies and paraeducators have served as unbiased judges.
This is the first year that the department with the winning chili will receive points that go toward Staff Olympics — an annual series of staff competitions between departments, such as charades and cornhole.
“[Staff Olympics] might change the stakes a little bit,” Landry said. “Some more people might play along, but I would say there's plenty of chili to go around.”
Landry plans to wake up at 5 a.m. on the morning of the competition to prepare and cook her chili.
“My chili is the bomb-dot-com, but it does take eight hours to cook,” Landry said. “[Spudtacular] is fun and food. How can you go wrong?”
The Columbia Brew Coffee Shop will be busier than usual during finals week because of "Finals Fuel Cards,” according to business and marketing teacher and Columbia Brew adviser Amanda Doane.
The fuel cards are $10 punch cards that parents can buy for their kids and add a personal note. If students don’t use the entire $10 to purchase drinks and snacks during finals week, they can still use it for the rest of the year.
The coffee shop will be open on Wednesday and Thursday from 7:15-7:40 a.m., and on Friday from 7:30-9 a.m., according to the @smecoffeeshop Instagram.
“We get new faces in the shop, and that’s super important to us to get new customers and build those relationships,” Doane said. “It's the time of year when maybe students have never been to the coffee shop before, but now we get to see them.”
The main organizers for the fuel cards are SHARE coordinators Erin Billingsley and Sheryl Kaplan. SHARE buys the $10 fuel cards from the coffee shop at a discounted price, which are then sold to parents for $15, according to Billingsley.
Through the fuel cards, SHARE raised $2,704 for the coffee shop, $868 to purchase 24 Angel Tree gifts for the Salvation Army, $630 for the Love Fund and $1,200 to help fund school lunches for students in the Shawnee Mission School District, according to Billingsley and the @sme_share Instagram.
“It's a win-win, because we get to help out the local community with Shawnee Mission lunches and then the Kansas City community with the gifts and also let kids give back to the coffee shop and have a little perk for finals week,” Billingsley said.
The Overland Park Luminary Walk will take place on Friday and Saturday at six different time slots between 5 and 7:30 p.m. at the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, according to ShowClix.
General Admission is $17, and children 5 and under are free, with tickets available on ShowClix. The walk features candlelit pathways and gardens, with holiday lights, musical performances and gnome and fairy villages throughout.
“My mom used to go on the Luminary Walk every year with her seven-person friend group, and my younger brother and his friends,” junior Claire Rosen said. “She really loves it.”
Rosen herself hasn’t been to the Luminary Walk since eighth grade, but she’s planning on returning this year with her brother and mom. She recommends going with a group of friends to take Christmas photos.
“My favorite part about going is the gigantic Christmas tree and all the Christmas-y decorations,” Rosen said. “Literally everywhere you look, there are crazy bright decorations, and it’s so festive.”
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