EHS annually works with Make-A-Wish America to grant life-changing wishes to children who are fighting or have fought life threatening illnesses. From February 10th to February 14th, Eaglecrest celebrated Hudson. Although Hudson is now a healthy eight year old boy, he received a liver transplant from his uncle when he was an infant. His parents claimed that they were amazed that Eaglecrest’s vast community was providing their son with so much support. Wish week has always been one of our student’s and staff’s favorite weeks of the year. Giving back to those in need has led the members of EHS to feel substantial amounts of pleasure and gratitude.
Eaglecrest is not the only Cherry Creek school that incorporates a wish week into their yearly calendar. Every other high school in the district spends a week in February recognizing a kid who is involved with the Make-A-Wish foundation.
“One thing that I think makes Eaglecrest’s wish week stand out is how we recognize our diversity and come together for this one purpose,” said senior Arsema Taffese.
Each day of the week, the raptors came to school dressed up for the corresponding spirit day. Monday was Minion day. Some people came dressed as the average minion with their former halloween costumes or with yellow shirts and overalls. Others came dressed as Gru with bald caps, fake noses, and his signature black and grey striped scarf. Tuesday was character day. People showed up to school dressed as their favorite childhood cartoon characters. For example, a group of sophomore girls were dressed in onesies that represented different characters from the 1966 film “Winnie the Pooh”. Wednesday was swim day. Students wore bathing suits over their everyday clothes while some teachers wore sun hats, Hawaiian beach skirts, sunglasses, lifeguard costumes, and white streaks of sunscreen across their noses and cheeks. Thursday was PJ/lounge day. Most of our students and staff sported their favorite pajama pants and pairs of slippers. Pajama day was a common favorite since everyone got to come to school in their most comfortable attire. It was intended for everybody to wear their raptor red and show as much school pride as possible as the week wrapped up. Because Friday was also Valentine’s day, people were more motivated than usual to show their spirit and wear their raptor red.
Every day after school, Eaglcrest hosted a variety of after school activities. These activities were immensely popular, just as the spirit days were. On Monday, The movie “Despicable Me 4” played in the theater at 6:30 PM. From 4-9 PM, there was a fundraiser at Raising Canes on South Parker and Arapahoe Road. There was another fundraiser at Kung Fu Tea from 4-8 PM that same night. On Tuesday, there was Pokémon card training at 4:30 PM which was followed by bingo at 6:30 PM. Both of these events occurred in the cafeteria. A fundraiser at the Chick-Fil-A in Southlands went on from 4-7 PM. The next day included a dodgeball game in the east gym at 6:30 PM. Our baseball team won the game. They’re team name was “The Pinky’s”, which was very fitting for them since they were all wearing the same hot pink t-shirts. Wednesday’s fundraisers were at Golden Flame and the Andy’s Frozen Custard shop on Quincy road from 6-10 PM. On Thursday, Eaglecrest’s Next Top Raptor/Masked Raptor began at 6:30 PM in the theater. The winner of the talent show was senior Yannis Lokakao. He rapped childrens books and got his audience to rap, dance, and clap along with him. At the Marco’s Pizza on Quincy road, another fundraiser took place. Our wish week assembly happened on Friday, the final day of wish week.
The assembly began around 10 AM on Friday morning. When you walked to the east gym, you could hear the band playing and filling our school with lively music. After this, some of Eaglecrests’s winter sports members walked past their peers after their teams had been announced. We saw boys and girls basketball players, girls swimmers and divers, unified sports participants, and more. Both the varsity dance team and the varsity cheerleading team put on jump, turn, and flip filled performances that awed the crowd. Some of this year’s spring musical cast performed a small scene of 9 to 5. The Masked Rator finalists were revealed as well. The finalists were all in blow up costumes. They were dressed as aliens, dragons, clowns, and eagles. The four finalists were eventually narrowed down to one winner. EHS’s next top raptor winner, Yannis Lokakao even shared his talent show winning performance with the rest of the school. Hudson and his family then walked across the red carpet to the middle of the gym to “Baby” by Justin Bieber – Hudson’s favorite song. As the assembly wrapped up, Sonic and Pokémon made an appearance to surprise Hudson and take pictures with students.
“Hudson has a special story, and his elementary school feeds into Grandview,” said sophomore Josiah Asibbey. “He has a lot of cool interests and he was able to connect with a lot of students.”
Eaglecrest ensured that we used our raptor pride to make Hudson’s wish week special and to make his dream come true – attending a Pokémon convention.
