Pink and purple lights lit up the gym floor as students and staff flooded through the doors decked out in pink outfits featuring accessories that ranged from cowboy hats to boas.

The annual Pink Out Pep Rally in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month was held Oct. 16, where those in attendance were encouraged to wear pink— a color symbolic for the Breast Cancer Awareness Movement. The rally featured a performance from the Cheer Team and Stars Dance Team, music from the band and a speech from Head Football Coach Jeff Harbert.

Cheer and Stars began preparing for their combined performance a month in advance, focusing on formations, choreography and logistics.

“The process for choreographing and putting together the pep rally performance was long but rewarding,” Sydney Schwartz, senior Stars Dance Team lieutenant and co-choreographer for the performance, said. “Me, Bella and the cheer captains had to work diligently to bring this pep rally together and even though it took a lot of time, the outcome was better than we could have expected.”

The teams faced many challenges putting the performance together, with the greatest being scheduling difficulties.

“The hardest part of putting together the Cheer and Stars pep rally was finding a time for both the teams to be able to practice together,” senior Cheer co-captain Stiles Ferguson said. “Everyone put in a lot of work and we were able to schedule outside of school practices to enable a full team practice.”

The hard work from both teams’ athletes and leadership paid off on pep rally day, as the performance was a success.

“I was excited to see it all come together,” Schwartz said. “I was proud of everyone who worked so hard to make my vision come to life and happy to see another Stars and Cheer pep rally.”

For many students, the highlight of the pep rally was seeing the two organizations joining forces. 

“My favorite part of the pink out pep rally was the combined stars and cheerleader performance,” Drum Major Zarana Patel said. “It was so cool to see two of our FHS groups perform a show that displayed the strengths of both.”

Senior choir member Yusra Zaman sang the national anthem at the rally, marking her second time singing it solo for the school. Her performance received a standing ovation from the crowd.

“I was less nervous than last year going into my performance and more excited since it’s my last time singing the national anthem,” Zaman said. “I felt really good after performing, especially since I messed up a little bit last year, but this year it went exactly how I imagined it to go.”

Before the pep rally ended, Harbert gave a speech to encourage students to show up at the pink out football game against Wakeland High School.

“Don’t let Wakeland beat us at anything,” Harbert said. “We need a larger and louder student section and more spirit than them.”

The Band showed their school spirit by sporting pink accessories at the game and pep rally.

“We [wore] pink face paint and [tied] pink bows on our instruments, and the Drum Majors also wore pink gloves,” Patel said. “In addition, we have a tradition of wearing pink ribbons on our uniforms.”

To recognize the true purpose of the pep rally there was a moment of silence as everyone in attendance honored those impacted by breast cancer.

“The Pink Out Pep Rally is important because it unites our school in support of a meaningful cause—raising awareness for breast cancer, honoring survivors and reminding everyone of the power of community care,” student council advisor Emily Haecker said.