In the beginning of this year, StuCo started to do a new activity in the morning called ‘morning greetings.’ On some mornings, StuCo brings candy and music and, most importantly, a smile in order to brighten the students’ mornings at OHS.
“So every year, StuCo goes to this thing called MASC and it’s Missouri Association Student Council. And at MASC, you go around and other students from other schools have booths, and we actually saw morning greetings from them…” Mikayla Le (10) said.
The morning greetings are meant to brighten students’ day. However, this often brightens the greeter days as well.
“It was so much fun. It was good just to be able to brighten somebody’s morning and put a smile on their face and give them candy because who doesn’t love candy,” Elle Waterkotte (12).
During the morning greetings, there is more to it than just candy and music, as there is also a message that goes with them.
“…Every time we have a morning greeting, I come up with a quote. And then I also have a morning message for everybody so that over the announcements, after the morning greeting, one of us will go over the announcements and say good morning to everybody,” Le said.
One of StuCo sponsors, Susan Mueller, loves the morning greetings as well.
“I loved the idea — I was 100% in support. I love when people say hello to me in the morning — it wakes me up and puts a smile on my face,” Mueller said. “We (StuCo and other OHS staff) might be the first ‘good morning’ some students get.”
At first, the morning greetings were smaller due to the greeter being only StuCo executive officers, but now it has opened up to all general members.
“The first one was only execs. And we, at that time, we only had a group of, I think, eight execs. So it was kind of hard because we only had at least two people per entrance. But now we make it an event for StuCo. And we open it to all the members, both to a certain amount of members to come join us,” Le said. “And now we have four to five people at each door and we have bigger speakers and we play more music. And we have a bigger variety of candy.”
These morning greetings are a way to connect with the student body and brighten others’ days, which is a part of StuCo’s overall goal.
“We are meant to be the representatives of our student body, and that is what we are working harder than ever to do. We want to make sure each student feels welcome and heard,” Mueller said. “This is a big challenge with a building of more than 1,800 bodies, but we are challenging ourselves and are doing what we can.”
