Wall Building

Feature

By Paige Rodgers
Husky Herald Reporter

  Opposed to float building like most schools participate in for their homecoming activities, Port Huron Northern students go against the grain and build class walls to compete for the barrell; a prize passed down to every winning class of the homecoming games.

  Wall building is an event that takes place over the week prior to homecoming. Student council, ran by Mrs. Tinsley, provides general themes such as decades, cities, movies etc..

  Each grade expands on the general theme provided and creates a wall into something that represents their class. For example, in 2014 the general theme for the walls was decades. The class of 2018  had the 50s, the class of 2017 had the 60s, the class of 2016 had the 20s, and the class of 2015 had the 80s.

  Students from every class paint murals on their respective walls, and create 3D objects that correlate to the theme. This year, for 2015, the general theme was “vacation destination”. The freshmen recreated the strip of  Las Vegas, the sophomores recreated Disney, the juniors recreated a jungle safari, and the seniors created a stroll through Europe.

  The wall has a maximum of a 10 foot depth, meaning the area surrounding the wall cannot expand over ten feet, a maximum width of 25 feet, and  a maximum height to the ceiling of Port Huron Northern’s cafeteria which is 15 feet. “There’s actually a lot of rules and restrictions,” Tinsley said.

  The walls are judged by volunteers. The walls are anonymous as to which grade they belong to. They are graded by the judges in a point system. You can earn points for authenticity, creativity, level of difficulty etc..

  At Port Huron Northern’s homecoming dance, the student council president reports the winners of wall building. For 2015, the seniors came in first, the juniors in second, the sophomores in third and the freshmen in fourth.

  The placement of the walls is directly correlated with how many points each grade earns towards the homecoming barrel.

  Many other factors go into winning the homecoming barrell such as class participation for spirit days, kart races, games assembly and penny jars. However, the class wall is the big turkey that reels in the most points and that defines each class.