![Sophomore Mary Kirtley holds her Dressember Foundation button. The buttons are passed down to the new STL Spark executive board members each year and they are encouraged to place them on their backpacks to help raise awareness about human trafficking. My sister, [Class of 2020 alumni] Grace Kirtley, started STL Spark when she was in high school and she would have people carry it on after she graduated, Mary said. Last year I got invited to join the board again with my sister, senior Patty Kirtley, and so weve been working on carrying her legacy a bit. Its become somewhat of a family project.](https://lancerfeed.press/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_5696-e1700061260167-1200x800.jpg)
![During FACS Department Chair Becky Lawrences 5th Hour Baking and Pastries class on Nov. 17, juniors Jack Dolle and Armani Turner eat the pies they made during their previous class. Because they cant use the water in their classroom, they also cant run their dishwashers. So, Lawrence had her students use paper plates and plastic utensils. Luckily I had disposable things on hand for them to eat with, so they used that. And then, the pie plate and server I’m just going to throw in the other [classes] dishwashers in between classes and hopefully I can keep up on it, Lawrence said.](https://lancerfeed.press/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_0008-1200x800.jpg)
![After Saegusas first performance with her hip-hop team in 2020, she holds her personal award for being the most improved. [When] I started, I didnt have any of the right technique, you could see I wasnt used to hip-hop in the beginning, so [that award] was for the most improved, she said.](https://lancerfeed.press/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/LTI-SNO-pic-Saegusa.png)
![After their State victory on Nov. 4, the volleyball team celebrates on the court. The team defeated Francis Howell in straight sets, 3-0. Everyone was out-of-this-world excited. [Winning back-to-back] was something that hasnt happened in awhile, Nelson said.](https://lancerfeed.press/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2023-State-championship-point-rushing-court-e1699295686646.jpg)
![After their State victory on Nov. 4, the volleyball team celebrates on the court. The team defeated Francis Howell in straight sets, 3-0. Everyone was out-of-this-world excited. [Winning back-to-back] was something that hasnt happened in awhile, Nelson said.](https://lancerfeed.press/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2023-State-championship-point-rushing-court-e1699295686646-300x200.jpg)
![Sophomore Mary Kirtley holds her Dressember Foundation button. The buttons are passed down to the new STL Spark executive board members each year and they are encouraged to place them on their backpacks to help raise awareness about human trafficking. My sister, [Class of 2020 alumni] Grace Kirtley, started STL Spark when she was in high school and she would have people carry it on after she graduated, Mary said. Last year I got invited to join the board again with my sister, senior Patty Kirtley, and so weve been working on carrying her legacy a bit. Its become somewhat of a family project.](https://lancerfeed.press/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_5696-e1700061260167-300x200.jpg)
After being approached by Principal Karen Calcaterra last year, social studies teacher Jodie Lee was responsible for finding a way to encourage kids and staff to be kind and show gratitude. Led by her, Nice November is a month-long celebration filled with activities and videos that aim to encourage a sense of kindness and appreciation. This will be the second year of Nice November.
“Nice November is a kind of school wide competition within our homerooms to see who can complete the most kind activities, acts of gratitude and hand out the most kindness cards. Then those will be tallied into the competition and the winning Homeroom and department will be provided lunch,” Lee said.
Teachers will be handing out Kindness Cards to students setting positive examples such as helping a classmate or picking up trash. The weekly video along with the activities will take place during Homeroom and will only take a few minutes.
“Our first activity that we’re doing is students are going to be writing thank you cards to their elementary school or middle school teachers. They’re going to choose one teacher and then we’re going to deliver those cards to the schools in our quadrant,” Lee said. “The second activity is for Letters of Love. Students are going to be creating cards of encouragement for kids who are in the hospital fighting a life-threatening illness, then Letters of Love will distribute the letters across the country.”
Another part of the month is staff dress up.
“One of the things that we did was dress up for days for the staff, [Nov. 1] was Comfy and Kind, so they wore comfy clothing like large sweatshirts. These dress up days will happen each B Day in November, and act as a sort of thank you to our staff for their hard work throughout the semester,” Lee said.
