Student Council was awarded Sweepstakes at the District 19 Spring Forum at Paul Pewitt on Feb. 25. This is the 26th year in row that our Student Council has received this recognition.

“For the last four years I’ve been in STUCO,” senior Whitney Jaynes said. “So it’s an honor to receive it during my senior year.”

Winning awards at Spring Forum has been something that our Student Council has strived to do for many years now. Therefore, expectations for later years have been raised.

“Part of it is carrying on a tradition,” adviser Susan Waldrep said. “It’s very important for each senior class to know that they’ve carried on a tradition and set a very high bar. It keeps us as one of the leading schools in our district. It’s also a recognition across the state because when we go to the state convention, all of the sweepstakes schools are on the screen. It’s nice to see where we are ranked with our other competitors in what we do and what we take care of.”

Not only was this an award for the entire student council organization, but awards were also given to individual students. The individual awards were given for outstanding achievement to senior Ben Norton, outstanding DASH (drug, alcohol, safety, health) to senior Whitney James, outstanding pride and patriotism to senior Marissa Johnston, juniors Caroline Purtle and Katherine Doan, outstanding energy and environment to junior Gage Martin and outstanding community service to seniors Madison Norton, Riley Madlock and Adam Graves.

“For STUCO, each group has a book that we submit for spring forum every year,” James said. “It’s a book of what Student Council does, and my section is over DASH. So I did a book over everything we do to practice what that means.”

This recognition has brought an immense amount of pride on these students.

“I am very proud of our student council,” Norton said. “In my eyes, our student council has excelled in almost everything this year. I’d like to think that if there were national rankings for student councils, we would be number one. I’m confident that we’ll be able to finish the year out strong.”