Is STUFF

equivalent to

SPIRIT?

Amidst the excitement of pep rally day, you may have seen a comical herd of girls carrying buckets half their size frantically searching for someone on the football team. If you’ve watched for long enough to see the actual awkward exchange, you’ve probably watched the exhausted girl struggle to hand the bucket over and the football player quietly mumble “thanks.”  When did Linganore’s ‘Red, Black, and Bow’ day become “Red, Black, and Bucket” day?  This year, I realized that I never questioned this problematic tradition.

The idea of spirit bags is that the teams that perform alongside the varsity football players on Friday nights create bags full of snacks, drinks, candy, and small gifts for a football player as a ‘good luck’ memento. It used to be a nice gesture to show the team that they were appreciated by their peers.

In a society obsessed with ‘stuff’ (as described by Annie Leonard, the author of The Story Of Stuff: How Our Obsession With Stuff Is Trashing The Planet, Our Communities, And Our Health – And A Vision For Change,) spirit bags have evolved into spirit buckets. Snacks and small gifts have turned into Family-Sized bags of chips and rather expensive gifts like gift cards, Under Armour socks and sweatshirts, sweatpants, and phone cases.

As a member of the pom and dance team, one of the teams who makes the buckets for the football players, I have made a spirit bucket three different times. Never once had I questioned why my teammates and I spent roughly 2-4 hours decorating a bucket and anywhere from 1-5 hours shopping for a football player. I think it’s time to discuss the idea of modifying the tradition.

Varsity cheer coach Janet Ingram buys the buckets that the varsity cheer, junior varsity cheer, and poms teams use for the football players.

“Getting the boys spirit bags has been around for as far back as I know, which is 15 years or longer. They were spirit bags at one time, then laundry baskets, and then changed to buckets four years ago,” said Ingram.

These buckets aren’t your typical pails; we’re talking about ‘Home Depot All-Purpose Buckets’ size. Spirit bucket makers fill these to overflowing.

The buckets are intricately decorated for hours before stuffed with goodies. They are often spray painted, stenciled on, and/or adorned with appliques, ribbons, and photographs. I think that most of us are influenced by Pinterest, where we get good ideas but also feel the pressure of making a bucket that matches the Do-It-Yourself queens.

“The decorating is fun, but there’s already so much we have to do during spirit week. It gets stressful,” said varsity cheer captain Elena Guardia.

In addition to the excess of size, the biggest problem is financial.  More often than not, buckets become the responsibility of the mothers to pay for and often collect the gifts that are put into the bucket.

“The bad thing about buckets is that the responsibility usually falls on the parents. Maybe there should be a money limit or a smaller bucket size,” said poms team mother, Sharon Hall. “I do like that it makes the girls think beyond themselves for someone else.”

“My mom helps me pay for my football bucket. She always has,” said poms dancer Emily Rieland.

Generally, buckets cost a family anywhere from 50 to 150 dollars, a lot to spend for a peer (and often, an unfamiliar one). Christmas gifts for close friends rarely cost that much.

On the contrary, the pom and dance team also makes spirit buckets for a pom and dance teammate chosen at random. These buckets are much more intimate and thoughtful, because girls know their teammates well.  Other sports teams have this tradition, too, and it’s a gesture of good will, often recognizing the seniors who are getting ready to graduate from the team.

“I like making teammate buckets so much more because I feel like you have a better connection with them, and you have an idea of what they want and like,” said poms dancer Maggie Hall.

So what would happen if each team made their own teammates buckets or bags? Each team could decide their own limits and if they wanted to participate or not.

Would the football players be hurt?

“I wouldn’t care,” said football player, Alex Martinazzi. “It doesn’t affect how we play.”

“It’s nice, but we don’t need it,” football player, Kyle Fahey agreed.

I propose that we get back to the “spirit” of the week and show encouragement and school support through more thoughtful and less material means.