Will Fairman

Spartan Assembly members volunteer at this year’s blood drive event.

Over the past year nearly everyone has been affected in some shape or form by the COVID-19 pandemic, including student government and leadership programs at PV such as Spartan Assembly and National Honor Society (NHS).

Spartan Assembly organizes various events and fundraisers for the school  and is responsible for a lot of the behind the scenes work on major projects for the school. Throughout this past school year a lot of their responsibilities were altered to adapt to the changing climate. 

Some of the major fundraisers/events that Spartan Assembly usually puts on include the homecoming parade, the homecoming carnival, and the student hunger drive. Unfortunately neither the parade nor the carnival were able to happen this year, but the student hunger drive was still conducted on a smaller scale to comply with the COVID-19 requirements.

Junior executive board member Will Faiman has been a part of Spartan Assembly for two  years and highlighted the struggles the group has faced throughout the year. “Since we couldn’t have in person meetings until the second semester, it was challenging to reach the level of connectivity that we have during a typical year,” he stated. 

Despite facing a variety of challenges, Spartan Assembly continued to meet virtually on their normal meeting schedule up until the second semester when they were allowed to return to in-person meetings. In addition to their meetings, Fairman shed light on how the use of group chats and the ease of technology as a whole allowed for the group to communicate with each other about the various responsibilities and establish some sense of connectivity among the group. 

Fairman and the executive board of Spartan Assembly have been working tirelessly to bring forth some sense of normalcy through the year-to-year events they are responsible for, and anticipate that next year things should go much smoother. “A goal of the executive board for next year is to bring back the major events the Spartan Assembly puts on, and to be much more involved with everything around the school as we would be during a usual school year,” Fairman stated. 

Spartan Assembly was not the only student leadership group affected throughout the school year, as the National Honor Society  faced the same challenges with overall involvement and activities. 

Senior executive council member Ben Curran highlighted the downfalls of the pandemic and how they affected the activities of the NHS. “NHS always holds several fundraisers throughout the year at various restaurants and high school events, which were sadly unable to happen this year. Luckily, we were still able to record the induction ceremony, which was live-streamed to all of the inductees,” he reflected. 

NHS provides fundraising opportunities throughout the year that typically entail slightly more than a simple donation. In years past, they have had dodgeball tournaments, volleyball tournaments and even 3-on-3 basketball tournaments. These activities have allowed students to both donate to a good cause and have a good time with their friends while doing so.

While Spartan Assembly and the National Honor Society had challenging school years, both groups persevered and adapted to make a positive impact on the school as a whole. The student leadership groups are looking forward to carrying out their normal school activities and fundraisers next year.