“The best night ever,” Olympic Heights junior Grace Deeb shared. 

On October 7, 2023, Olympic Heights hosted their annual Homecoming dance centered around the streets of New York City, featuring the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, and the “Big Apple.”

Leading up to this year’s Homecoming dance, Olympic Heights Student Government Association (SGA) hosted an action-packed week full of various dress up days to engage students in the festivities leading up to the dance. “Since the end of last year, SGA worked together to pick a theme, delegate tasks, and plan this dance,” Izzy Levine, Olympic Heights Student Body Secretary, added. 

During lunch each day, SGA sold ‘I ❤️ OH’ Homecoming shirts to promote OH spirit. The purpose of the Olympic Heights Homecoming week is “to elevate school spirit and a sense of community within the Olympic Heights student body,” Chelsea Fink, Student Government Advisor, commented. “SGA strives to put on fun programming that gets everyone involved with and excited about their school!”

New York State of Mind, No Backpack of Any Kind 

October 2: Students were encouraged to leave their backpacks at home for the day and bring in an irregular item to hold classroom materials. Throughout the school day, a variety of items were seen ranging from a laundry basket to a grill, and even a shopping cart. 

Traffic Jam

October 3: Students were encouraged to wear neon throughout the day. Students and teachers wore outfits that featured bright, neon colors such as green, pink, yellow, blue, and orange. “Traffic Jam, the theme of day 2, was by far the best themed day of homecoming week,” Brooke Smith Olympic Heights junior added. 

Times Square Takeover

October 4: Students were encouraged to dress as their favorite Time Square character. Throughout campus, characters of all sorts were seen such as Goofy from the famous Mickey Mouse, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and a duo costume, Mario and Luigi. 

Game Night @ MSG

October 5: Students were encouraged to wear their favorite sports jersey. Whether a baseball or football player, or even a hockey fan, this day encouraged all students to embrace their inner athlete! 

Class Colors

October 6: Students were encouraged to wear their class colors. Freshman were to wear white to show their school spirit, sophomores black, juniors yellow, and seniors black and gold. Following this, the red, white, and blue themed homecoming football game took place at 6:30pm in the Lion’s Den. Olympic Heights band, cheerleaders, and color guard performed at halftime, putting on an excellent show for students and faculty!

Homecoming Dance

October 7: On the ‘final’ day of homecoming week, students attended the Olympic Heights NYC Homecoming Dance of 2023. “Everything from the outdoor decorations, food, to finding a DJ and promoting the dance was done by SGA,” Levine commented. This dance featured a fun-filled night consisting of music of all genres, an engaging social scene, pizza, drinks, and more! 

“Homecoming 2023 was all I could’ve imagined and more. The New York City theme was executed perfectly, in addition to the feature of “Welcome to New York” by the one and only Taylor Swift,” Olympic Heights junior Bake Rubin shared.