Powderpuff has been one of Morgan’s most successful fundraisers, since its creation from 2013 all the way till now, it’s made its mark as one of the main ways the school’s been able to make money for school activities, and also raise awareness for breast cancer since October’s the month of breast cancer awareness, while also being a fun and engaging activity for the student body. With over a decade of history though, one would have to wonder what’s changed over the years of Powderpuff, if anything major at all? And with Powderpuff coming up on its 9th year, The PawPrints decided to look into how Powderpuffs changed and evolved over the years.
Powderpuff began back at the old Morgan in 2013, with it starting out as a fundraiser created by freshmen for the Class of 2017. Powderpuff was a game of touch football, where players would pull at opposing teams flags on their sides instead of tackling others like in normal football. The twist of Powderpuff however was that instead of guys playing and girls cheerleading, girls were playing while guys were the cheerleaders. The theme for this year would be Blondes vs. Brunettes, where girls with Blonde and Brown hair would go against each other on the field while guys were cheering on from the sidelines. This ended up being the most successful fundraiser for the class that year, making the idea of holding it again for future classes a no-brainer.
“Powderpuff was a total blast, it was a fun way for the girls to be able to “be tough” and have fun.” – Krystina Johnson, former Morgan Student during a recently held interview on Powderpuff this year.
As Powderpuff went along in its early years, people saw the event as a great change for the students, especially kids in the student body. As former student Julia Hornyak said, “It’s a way to come together as girls and be with people who you usually wouldn’t usually be with.”
Powderpuffs ended up being a win-win for the school with how Morgan itself could get funding while also raising support for breast cancer awareness, which was an idea from the beginning of Powderpuff. The idea was funds from Powderpuff games would be split 50/50, with half of it going to funding the school, while the other half going into donations for breast cancer research, this made it so the school was donating to a good cause, gaining support and funding for the school, all while students could bond with each other more through sportsmanship and good play brought on by the Powderpuff games.
However, as Powderpuff finished its 6th year and was going into its 7th, Covid-19 hit and spread across the country, causing severe illness and casualties in the millions. This led to the Morgan School being shut down for quite a while, so in turn, Powderpuff had to be canceled in 2020 due to the lockdown. Slowly, though, as the lockdown lifted, kids were able to go back to school and spend time in classes working while being with their friends. Along with this, the idea of bringing Powderpuff back came up, which was met with agreement from the school, making Powderpuff 2021, the next annual Powderpuff since the hiatus from 2019 to 2020.
Powderpuffs since have gone well, with students seeming to enjoy a return to the games, which was also the sentiment for junior, Jacquelyn Ciarleglio, a student who currently manages Powderpuff. Jacquelyn said, “The past two years that I’ve done it and played it’s been really successful, the coaches have been great, the players have been great.”
This year, Powderpuff will be held for the 9th time among the students, with a good turnout expected due to past years and their successes. Though this wasn’t always the case, as there have been some troubles with this year’s Powderpuff due to date mishaps and participation worries. The first issue stemmed from the original date of this year’s Powderpuff, which would’ve been on the 26th of October. This was a problem since many of the students that usually participated during Powerderpuff would’ve been in separate games, which would have significantly impacted the turnout for Saturday’s Powderpuff. To combat this issue, the student managers came together with the teachers to agree on holding Powderpuff on the 16th of November, which was good for multiple reasons. One reason being that this made it so people on sports teams would have an opportunity to play without the worry of a game stopping them, and it also gave other kids a chance to sign up and participate in Powderpuff if they never got the chance to.
“We figured it out in a way of changing the date, it used to be October 26th, but now we’re changing it to November 16th, and we changed that so a lot more of the athletes here at Morgan who play fall sports are able to go,” said Jacquelyn.
Another main worry from managers has been the lack of participation from the students as of recent, as while they do have decent turnouts, students seem less interested than before in going to or participating in Powderpuff. These worries have mostly been quelled however with the aforementioned date change, as they believe the lack of participation may stem from the fact kids didn’t know that much about Powderpuff before the forms to participate closed. “We’ve also run into participation problems, with that being said, more of the participation that’s coming from the date, now that it’s set, I think that’s good, it really raises our hopes,” Jacquelyn reassured.
Due to the date change, they also plan to have more advertising through announcements at lunch and during the morning announcements, which should be able to get the ball rolling on kids learning about and in turn participating in Powderpuff. And if all goes well, this year’s Powderpuff may be just as good as the Powderpuffs from years past, and could set a good precedent for Powderpuffs in the future.