The First Week of March Ends With a Bang!
The first week of March in the Upper Division marked the annual BLUE Week celebration. Exciting dress-up days, penny wars, and a large half-day celebration on Friday were all included in this year’s festivities. All proceeds that were collected during BLUE Week were given to the non-profit organization Fields and Futures, whose purpose is, in their own words, “to ignite hope and confidence throughout Oklahoma City Public Schools by showing kids they are capable of rising above their circumstances.” The BLUE Week Chair, Caroline Watkins (‘22), organized the celebrations in collaboration with the Student Council and many of Casady School’s sponsors. I reached out to her and received many interesting tidbits of information about the origins and purpose of BLUE Week.
According to Caroline, “BLUE Week is one week out of the year when we come together as a school and celebrate a non-profit organization.” The Upper Division did in fact come together as one to participate in enjoyable activities, such as Family Feud, dares, a dodgeball tournament, and a large pep rally in the Bennett Athletic Center. All proceeds collected from the aforementioned activities are directly sent to Field and Futures in order for them to build playing fields for multiple sports in many different Oklahoma City schools. Although dares, activities, and raising money for different charities has been occurring at Casady School for many years, the name, BLUE Week, is completely new. Caroline Hall (‘21), Caroline Watkins (‘22), and Ms. Bek-gran had reassessed the original name, Walk-a-Thon, and determined that it did not necessarily fit, so they decided on BLUE Week due to the fact that blue is one of Casady’s school colors, and the acronym BLUE literally means “Building Love, Uniting Everyone.”
BLUE Week involves a large planning process, which includes multiple Student Council meetings where the each of the representatives split into separate groups to determine which activities will happen, how dares will work, etc. The day before is even more important to the planning process because all the photo-op flower walls, balloons and decorations involved must be set up by vendors who collaborate with the Student Council. The overall total of this year’s earnings that will be allocated to Fields and Futures is still undetermined; however, Caroline Watkins (‘22) did guarantee me that at least $21,000 was raised, and that they hope to receive even more donations next year and in the years to come.
The BLUE Week celebration was a well-planned process that entertained so many of us with fun activities, amazing dares, and a bunch of goodies including pizza, doughnuts, and ice cream. It is so fun to see the excitement of the student body, and I love planning events like this for everyone to enjoy,” said Caroline. “It really does take a village, and we are so thankful for everyone who helped us along the way.” This time next year, we all hope, will be normal, so we can all gather safely to celebrate the annual BLUE Week in a fun-filled way that creates many long-lasting memories.