On Friday, October 9th, Holyoke High students set their alarms and showed up to school bright and early to be featured on the Western Mass News segment “Honor Roll Live.” Honor Roll Live is a weekly segment hosted by ABC40 reporter Brittany Decker that travels to different schools in the Western Massachusetts area and gives the students the opportunity to showcase all of the amazing things going on at their schools. Of course, Holyoke High had no trouble in finding excited students ready to show their Purple Knight Pride!

The show opened at 5am sharp with students full of energy despite the early hour, and the first group who got to show off their talents was the school Band. The Band came fully prepared even including flag and baton twirlers. The music was peppy and was definitely a great wake up tool for many of the students there!

Two other musical groups were also standing by to represent Holyoke High’s strong musical department. The Madrigal Singers and the Bell Choir, both directed by Mark Todd, performed a few numbers as well. The Madrigal Singers sang, “One Hand, One Heart” from the musical West Side Story, while the Bell Choir performed “Gloria Fanfare” and “Fanfare Jubilee.” Senior Kiana Vega was extremely proud to be showing off all of their hard work, “It’s actually very uplifting for the public to see how much practice we put into it everyday. Some of us came from having no musical experience to learning how to fully read and count music.”

As well as musical groups, many clubs were present and happy to talk about their presence on campus. New to the school this year, the Restorative Justice group explained how they are getting students and teachers to work together by verbal communication in order to solve conflicts. Their acronym RIGHTS standing for Respect, Integrity, Generosity, Humility, Trust, and Strength.

The Drama Club took the opportunity to advertise their future performance involving stereotypes in and outside of school (Make sure to come to the show December 4th and 5th!), and the student government association showed how proud they are to represent the school, and how it really is Holyoke VS Anybody.

The GSA stressed about how important it is to make all students, NO matter their sexual orientation, feel safe in their learning environment, and the Business Club talked about all of the wonderful fundraisers they do and how it helps the school and the community.

Also present was the undefeated Girls Varsity Field Hockey team that is currently 12-0. They were very peppy and happy to represent the Holyoke High athletic department. Sophomore Taryn O’Sullivan, a second year member of the field hockey team, said, “It may have been 5 in the morning but it was amazing to see everyone so energetic and supporting Holyoke High!”

Another very special group (although we may be biased) The Herald was there discussing how much they’ve grown in recent years. Our editor in chief and senior Melanie Kos spoke alongside one of our public relations representatives Summer Kaeppel and talked about The Herald becoming a primary news source for people in the high school as well as many people in the community.

The show topped off with a little surprise: junior Justin Godbout asked Brittany Decker to go to prom with him as “Knight Nation.” Thanks to all of these wonderful clubs, Holyoke High was able to show off many of the great things that happen in our school everyday! A very special thank you to Western Mass News for coming to our school!