With the holiday season approaching, the Student Council is working hard to bring holiday cheer to the Solon High School (SHS) hallways. Several decorations have been set up all over the school for holidays such as Diwali and Dia de los Muertos. The Student Council plans to continue decorating the halls throughout the school year in order to provide an inclusive environment for Solon students.

Ann Trocchio, head guidance counselor and advisor for Student Council, explains what sparked the student council to set up these decorations for this school year.

“We have so much diversity, and everybody is celebrating different holidays, and we just felt that it would brighten up the hallways– let everyone know we acknowledge you and that we all are SC,” Trocchio said. “So by doing that I think it helps all of the students see what is going on too. It just makes us more of a student team.”

Ava Zweig, president of the Student Council, stated how since the Student Council is filled with such a diverse group of kids, they have all collaborated together to learn more about these holidays.

“We kind of all brainstorm together to think of everything but we had to be very careful,” Zweig said. “We didn’t want to overrepresent one group and not another at all.”

Trocchio also gets more in depth about what kind of research was put into the decorations and the information that they got about all of these holidays.

“We have a holiday team that did research online and really took into account our population at Solon,” Trocchio said. “So what holidays do our students celebrate? And those were chosen based on our population and the research they did on it.”

The Student Council are not the only ones helping out with these decorations, many other staff members contribute to the process of setting these decorations up as well.

“It has been hard setting up everything,” Zweig said. “It is not as easy as it looks to get everything, but we have been working with the custodial staff throughout the whole process. It is definitely worth it for the results we have been getting.”

Trocchio stated she hopes that students educate themselves, and if they don’t know what one of the holidays are, they go look up who celebrates this and look into it a little more. She wants students to understand different cultures and be more accepting of each other.

“I am really looking forward to the Hanukkah decorations and for my religion to be represented especially since so many students in Solon are Jewish,” senior Jordan Chaittoff said.

The Student Council is really proud of all the really positive feedback from teachers and students and hope to continue receiving support for all the future holidays.

“We are excited to continue to do it throughout the school year and hopefully create a legacy for years to come” Zweig said.