Here at Spring Lake High School not all of our lore is in the distant past. The next tradition we will be investigating in this series is the “Spirit Week Bonfire.”
Think about it now: could you imagine having a massive bonfire in the woods on school grounds? Sounds insane, right? But as of even 12 years ago, that was a real and highly cherished thing done at our school.
This after-school event was a big part of Homecoming Week in Spring Lake for many years. This was for all high school students, not only upperclassmen, as some other traditions usually are. Typically, after the Powderpuff game, students would gather in the woods behind Grabinski Field to build a massive wood pile for the celebration.
In its prime, though, this was meaningful to many people. English teacher and Laker Anchor adviser Alex Sinn, who graduated from Spring Lake in 2011, remembers the tradition.
“I remember the bonfire being huge,” he said. “It felt like we were getting away with something, being in the woods in the dark with a huge fire, but it was safe and school-sanctioned and a fun celebration.”
Throughout the years, this was a major part of Homecoming culture, and in many yearbooks had an entire page dedicated to the event. According to local Spring Lake grads, this tradition is said to have started in the fall of 1971. At its founding it was a class competition with freshmen and seniors facing off against the sophomores and juniors to see who could get the largest fire. As time went on, the fire seemingly consolidated down to one even larger bonfire that had contributions from all grade-levels.
From then on, the bonfire remained relevant up until the fall of 2012, when the tradition unfortunately was ended by school officials due to community concerns about students’ physical and mental wellbeing following inappropriate student behavior during the last fire.
For those who can remember the tradition, the fire still burns bright. Jason Stehouwer, 2005 grad, said, “The bonfire during Homecoming week was one of my favorite Homecoming traditions. Freshmen through seniors were all there, and the band was there playing the Spring Lake Fight Song.”
