Are You Using Spirit Wear Like This?
1. #SpiritWearFridays
Boost morale by designating a day to wear spirit wear. Whether Friday, Monday or a monthly date, you can get the whole school to rally with a spirit wear day. Not only does the flood of school colors across campus or across Facebook instill a sense of cohesion, it also reminds everyone of the school’s mission and values and to celebrate their fantastic community.
2. Commemoration of a Special Event
School spirit wear can be a nice touch in commemorating a special milestone. It allows the celebration to go beyond a single day (or year). Here are some great milestones that deserve a special shirt, pants, sweatshirt or hat:
- School’s milestone anniversary (e.g. 25th, 50th, 100th)
- Celebrating the graduating class (consider including sashes and badges)
- Welcoming incoming class
- School reunions (e.g., shout out to all our 1996 grads)
3. Thank Yous
Whether you’re thanking volunteers of an event, the teachers, or recent PTA members, a t-shirt or hat can be a powerful tool. If you’re thanking event volunteers, sharing the item before the event allows everyone to wear matching gear. If you’re thanking them after the fact, they get a special reminder of their good deed or decision to support a cause.
4. Encouraging community engagement
It is critically important to have an engaged community. As we discussed in our September 2020 webinar on building school culture, a positive school morale and engaged community can lead to better academic results. Aside from engagement by wearing spirit wear, you can also engage your community by getting them involved in creating the spirit wear! The first method is the simplest: shirt signings. Shirt signings can be paired with commemorative or event driven spirit wear and are exactly what they sound like: a time to add extra flare to your spirit wear by having a group of people sign your spirit wear. For example, you can set aside a time where teachers will be available to sign the graduates’ spirit wear shirts, and a parting message as a kind wish for the future. The students can preserve those shirts as a memory of their institution and the outstanding faculty that contributed to their success.
The second method is to get people involved through a spirit wear contests. These fun multi-week events can bring out the creative side of your school community. We have written a more detailed post about this, but the concept is simple: ask your community to design a shirt. This gets their creative juices flowing and can get people really excited to select a winner through voting.
5. Fundraise
We would be remiss in not mentioning one of the primary reasons most schools sell spirit wear — to fund enhancement activities for their students. When you want to gather money for a particular event, or just dollars towards the general fund, there is no doubt that spirit wear can generate anywhere from $200 to over $2000 if you maximize your fundraising efforts. Since buyers know they are supporting a good cause, it also gives them satisfaction to know their purchases are supporting the community.
Final Thoughts
There are many ways to leverage spirit wear in your school community. These are our top 5 but we would appreciate hearing from you. Drop us a line with your pictures or ideas on our Facebook page. If you’re in charge of spirit wear for your school, you can check out The Multipurpose Room podcast episode about being a spirit wear chair for some tips on where to start.
Originally published at https://www.k12clothing.com on October 6, 2020.
