Homecoming Structures Come Alive
Building Spirit, One Box at a Time
Homecoming has been part of life at Chadwick since the 1940s. Over the decades, Vanderlip Lawn has served as a central gathering place for students, and Homecoming Week remains one of the most active times of the year on campus.
Structure building is one of the week’s longest-running traditions, and this year it took on added meaning. Longtime Student Council (STUCO) faculty adviser Ryan Zachos said he loves how the Upper School theme for the year, “Be Here!,” has translated into the spirit of Homecoming.
“I think that we want everyone, especially the seniors, to really appreciate being present and enjoy being together, so the structures give all the grades something, both literally and figuratively, to build together,” Zachos said. “They take their class themes and work on expressing them as a class, which has really yielded some really cool creations this year.”
For years, structure building belonged to the senior class alone. Director of Enrollment Lauren White recalls, “Seniors have been building structures for as long as I can remember, but the other grades began building their own when I was Dean of Students, maybe in 2014? It has really grown over the years, and I think it is a great tradition.”
Today, each Upper School class designs and builds a structure based on its class theme and color. The structures are judged on creativity and other criteria, and the results count toward the Homecoming grade-level competition. Materials must be recyclable to support the school’s sustainability goals, so cardboard boxes make up the bulk of many structures. Students are encouraged to put creativity first; when it comes to a Homecoming structure, bigger does not necessarily mean better.
The schedule still gives seniors a head start. They are permitted to begin building on Wednesday night, while ninth, 10th and 11th graders must wait until Thursday morning. Seniors also choose the music for Thursday’s Class Colors Day, and this year two senior DJs played during the Wednesday night build and throughout the day on Thursday from a DJ booth built into the senior structure.
“The seniors get to choose the music [for] Class Colors, and so they work the DJ booth into the senior structure,” Zachos said. “That is a great idea, but it’s sustainable and doesn’t cost a lot of money. Just develop a theme and build on it.”
This year’s themes were Freshman Frost, Surf’s Up Sophomores, Junior Jungle and Senior Safari. The Junior Jungle structure was built on Brogan Deck, and faculty and staff built a structure of their own, joining the four classes in the tradition.
The work is hands-on and collaborative. Students stack and tape boxes, paint signs, hang fabric and add decorations, often dividing into small groups to handle different sections of the build.
Click here to view the Homecoming album online.
