In the light of the new fall season, the Associated Student Body at Prospect has announced the arrival of a new spirit week. It is called HomeStaying week, and it will be taking place throughout the week of Sept. 28 to Oct. 2. 

Chris Cirrincione, the advisor of ASB at Prospect, wants to make it clear that this spirit week was not put in place of Homecoming week which was originally supposed to take place during the same time. Rather, HomeStaying week is a fall spirit week that emphasizes on the new school slogan, “Celebrating Every Knight While we are Staying at Home”. 

The decision for this week was a collaboration between staff and students, Cirrincione says. They formulated a number of ideas, and tried to plan out what was possible to do that could meet the requirements.

“We know that our community is looking for something,” Cirrincione said. “And as staff, we wanted to provide a way to engage with our students and create some excitement around the fall season.” 

ASB will be doing window decorating along with many other events throughout the course of the week, including: a virtual pep assembly on Tuesday, a senior drive-by parade with an individual senior power toss and the home cross country meet on Wednesday, a volleyball scrimmage on Thursday in the stadium and a drive-in movie on Friday. 

The protocols that were provided by the district for in-person gatherings are that students must bring their ID, wear a mask and socially distance from each other. There will also be dress-up days in which students can have the option to dress up according to a particular spirit day or change their background during zoom classes. 

“This is not anyone’s ideal Homecoming, but we are excited about this opportunity to celebrate every knight at Prospect,” Cirrincione said. 

The biggest difference between traditional Homecoming week and HomeStaying week is that students are normally in school during Homecoming week, and have the opportunity to attend the Homecoming dance.

However, because of the danger of bringing large groups of students close together due to COVID-19, students are now at home. 

“I’ll probably miss the dress-up days the most because I don’t think any other time throughout the year anyone is so willing to let themselves have fun, and everyone does it together so it’s not like anyone’s singled out,” senior Page Russo, who has been a member of class board for the past four years as well as The Underground since her sophomore year, said. 

Russo says that there is still hope for some sort of Homecoming to take place during the spring that would be able to bring a good end to the year. 

“I think anyone that you’d ask would say obviously we’re sad that we can’t have a traditional homecoming, but we’re excited for being able to do this now, and we’re also excited about what we can offer in the future,” Cirrincione said.

Both Cirrincione and Russo are most excited about the senior parade and the chance to see students back on campus, as well as the volleyball game. 

“As a senior, it’s really hard knowing that I’m not getting the best part of it, which obviously I’ve been looking forward to my senior year football season since I was a freshman because I watched my sister at the front of the games,” Russo said. 

Cirrincione feels proud to be working with the Prospect community to be able to put on this new week because Prospect is the first major school in the area to offer a fall spirit week like this. 

To get the most out of this experience, Prospect students should participate in as many things as they can as well as making sure to do these things safely by wearing a mask, socially distancing and following all directions. 

“If we all decide to go and make it good, then there’s really nothing bad that could come out of it,” Russo said. 

More information regarding the details of HomeStaying will be released this week.