Thousands of Key Club members from California, Nevada, and Hawaii swarmed the Golden Bear Stadium at Six Flags Magic Mountain on Nov. 19 to celebrate the annual Fall Rally. Equipped with thundersticks, pom-poms, and whistles, different divisions battled it out during the spirit war and auction event for a chance to win the spirit stick.
Out of 59 divisions, the Vikings were a part of the Division 13 North, known as the Green Monkeys, along with nine other schools. The rally started off with an auction. Every school donated $300 to use for the event, and the proceeds went to the Pediatric Trauma Program. The lieutenant governors and executive officers were auctioned off; the division with the highest bid spent a certain amount of time with the individual they won. Compared to other groups, the Green Monkeys did not offer more than $1,000. In the end, they still managed to obtain one lieutenant governor with a bid of around $900.
“Even if we only won one governor, the rally was definitely better than I expected,” Key Club member Imran Chowdhry said. “We still cheered every time we made a bid.”
After the auction, each section got the chance to show their enthusiasm during the spirit war. The Division 13 South, also called the Ninjas, started the war with a remix of the infamous “Brr…It’s cold in here” cheer. When it was the Green Monkeys’ turn, they chanted the well-known Key Club cheer and followed it with the remix. Even though they fell short in their originality, they still proved to be one of the loudest groups.
“We didn’t have a unique cheer, but I think that our division had a lot of spirit,” President Caroline Tran said. “Every member was willing to participate, and we gave it our best.”
As the judges revealed their decision, Division 13 North was eliminated, and Divisions 3, 25 West, and 13 South were chosen to move on to the next round. With few minutes to come up with another cheer for the final spirit war, 13 South prevailed in the end and was awarded the spirit stick. A former Viking but a current Wilson High School student and a member of the winning team, Emelie Muy, was overjoyed with their victory.
“I enjoyed being a Green Monkey my freshman year,” Muy, 12, said. “But it was definitely exhilarating hearing the judges announce 13 South as the winner.”
The Kiwanis members continued to spread their joy outside the stadium. With the rally only taking up two hours of the day, the members spent most of their time going on rides and meeting students from other schools. The well-known phrase “How do you feel?” was constantly heard all over the park and the person who was asked the question was compelled to do the Key Club cheer and dance. A few were hesitant to scream by themselves, but most were not ashamed to yell and dance whether they were in the center of the crowd, the middle of the line, or even on the ride.
“It’s a little daunting having to do the cheer all alone especially when there are people staring at you,” Tran said. “But when you’re surrounded with your friends and other Kiwanis who are eager to do it, it makes you want to do it too.”
The Green Monkeys have been preparing since the beginning of the school year. Months of hard work have definitely turned into a success. Now that the highly anticipated event is over, the underclassmen are determined to make next year’s fall rally an even bigger success.
