Principal Tom Harmas, assistant principal Toby Steele and social studies teacher Justin Quick sport matching pajama pants on the first day of Culture of Care week. The first spirit day this week was pajama day.

As this week is Culture of Care week, numerous activities will commence to promote mental health awareness, according to Principal Tom Harmas. Additionally, Harmas said administrators, including Superintendent Michael Beresford, are still debating how to make up the school time lost in last week’s three closures, and will notify the school community as soon as the decision is made. Also, Harmas said construction after the explosion that occurred in a boiler room over break is progressing, with workers still coming to work on damaged areas daily.

Harmas said activities this week include spirit days—sweatshirt day tomorrow, fandom day on Thursday, and blue and gold day on Friday—playing cards in the cafeteria on Wednesday during lunches, a mental health awareness night on Wednesday evening for parents, club day in the Varsity Gym on Thursday during SRT, and therapy dogs during lunches on Friday in both the Freshman Cafeteria and the Community Room.

Additionally, Harmas said middle schools and elementary schools will partake in some similar Culture of Care activities this week, the first time it has extended beyond the walls of CHS. Harmas said he hopes these events will promote a culture of promoting mental health awareness.

“I hope it’s just a reminder for all of us that we’re in this together, that mental health is something that we’re trying to help people learn how to cope with, and what those coping mechanisms are, and to be able to reach out to others,” Harmas said. “There are always people that can give you a hand and give you help; you can make a difference (too). If you’ll only concentrate sometimes on other people instead of ourselves, we can all make a difference.”

Senior Sepehr Asgari said he agrees the Culture of Care program is beneficial for students.

“I think it’s great that the school is paying a lot of attention to mental health because it’s very important. Many people suffer from mental illnesses and I feel that this attention will help people understand the issue better and maybe influence people to take action.” By Carson TerBush