At Pocahontas Middle School, we kicked off the school year with a bang. A mere seven weeks after the start of the Hawk school year, Pocahontas is already milling with activity. Sales of “Pink Out” shirts wrapped up in the bus lobby, preceding our Pink Out Breast Cancer Awareness Day Oct. 24. All the proceeds from selling our Pink Out shirts will be donated to Breast Cancer research. Hopefully, by wearing pink to support breast cancer, it will bring attention to a prominent issue.

Pocahontas has also been busy with the Feed the Penguins fundraising project. It was a massive endeavor to secure the assistance of the student body in this fundraising mega-project. There were miniature penguins, magic thumbs, and bladeless fans given as prizes. The winner for the most number of paper sales was eighth grader Carter Ryder and online sales winner was seventh grader Amy Layton. Both students received a generous fifty dollars for the feat. There were approximately 1,500 sales made by our students.

Fall sports have also started, and so far our teams have been doing well. Boys’ soccer, girls’ basketball, girls’ tennis, football, and cheerleading are all underway with only a few more games before each team wraps up their season. The first pep rally took place early in the school year; the eighth grade class won the spirit flag which will be displayed in their hall until the next rally. Powder puff football has also started up. Seventh- and eighth-grade girls have the opportunity to play flag football while seventh- and eighth-grade boys cheer from the sidelines.

Last, but surely not least, the Hawkball tournament is coming up on Friday, Nov. 2 at 5:30 pm. Teams of six students strong will play dodge ball against each other, and teams are encouraged to wear the same color, or even a costume. As we progress farther into our year, Pocahontas moves forward in leaps and bounds.