Wood Celebrates Homecoming Weekend

A Friday that began at Archbishop Wood with a pep rally and ended at a dance where seniors Brianne Hanemann and Matt DiFlorio crowned as homecoming queen and king was just the start of the school's three-day celebration.

"Homecoming is a great way to build school spirit," said Mary MacDonald, assistant principal of student affairs. "It brings everybody together to celebrate the school, and it is all planned and prepared by the students. I just oversee them, but it is their show."

Student council president Carolyn Quinn and vice president Megan Oczkowski have spearheaded the effort to put together a full week of activities leading up to the weekend, with the rest of the student council and classroom reps helping with the organization and preparation.

"We've had plenty of other student volunteers come in and help as well," said Quinn. "It's been a total school effort."

Quinn and Oczkowski suffered a bit of a setback to their planning schedule when the archdiocesan teachers at the beginning of the school year, but they shouldered the additional stress and powered through the shortened timeframe.

"We were about two weeks behind, so things got a little hectic," said Oczkowski.

Homecoming weekend continues Saturday morning with the RemembeR 5K Run at 9 a.m. at the high school. It's the inaugural year for the race, with the proceeds going to the Rich Kelly Fund, in honor of the longtime pysical education teacher who died in April 2010. Wood faculty members will participate in the race while wearing t-shirts also honoring the recently deceased John "Skip" Duffy, a retired teacher who taught business classes at the school.

Tomorrow at 2 p.m., Wood alumni are invited to an Oktoberfest celebration at the school that will feature food, refreshment, live entertainment and an auction of a photo collage created by student photographer .

"All month, we had students and committee wear pink in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month," said Quinn. "Michael took a bunch of pictures and placed them into the shape of a pink ribbon."

The weekend wraps up with Wood's 1 p.m. football game Sunday against rivals Monsignor Bonner, where the homecoming court will be invited to take the field during halftime.