Contributed by Sophia Hwang | Lyman Hall DECA, CT
In 1972, the town of Wallingford opened a new high school to accommodate its growing population. Judy Samaha decided to organize a flag football game between the Lyman Hall High School and Mark T. Sheehan High School, in which senior girls would play the flag football game the day before the traditional Thanksgiving day boys' football game. Today, the annual PowderPuff game has become an extremely popular game and a tradition for many families as mothers now experience watching their daughters play in a game they played years prior.
This year marked the fiftieth anniversary of the game. To help students, teachers, players and families get excited and display their support for the game, our DECA chapter sponsored the production of spirit buttons for Lyman Hall High School. This is currently our seventh continuous year producing them. The spirit button is a pin that students and staff can wear to show their school spirit and support for their players! Over this past powderpuff game, DECA accumulated hundreds of orders.
To complete all of the spirit button orders, DECA members got involved by staying multiple days after school. First, we created three new button designs, which consisted of a football jersey with a player's name and number depicted, a football with a player's number depicted, and lastly, a more general button composed of the Lyman Hall mascot with "fiftieth anniversary" across the bottom. The Lyman Hall DECA chapter manufactured a total of 969 buttons—a new record.
DECA members worked cohesively to create the spirit buttons and to hold a successful fundraiser for our chapter. Our members feel extremely proud to work on this project and contribute to the excitement and spirit of the fiftieth anniversary of the town-wide tradition.
