As teachers and students entered school on a dreary Friday morning, something seemed different. Students arrived on campus to discover brightly-colored anomalies: Silly socks strewn around the halls.
At first, the scattering of socks seemed to be a mere prank. Yet as students scrambled into the Academic Commons, a flier on the wall indicated otherwise. It included a message from “The Friday Project,” a student-led initiative whose goal is to give students a fun surprise at the end of each week.
“Our philosophy is this: If you had a bad day, but at least get some socks out of it, then we’ve succeeded,” The Friday Project said via an anonymous email interview.
The Friday Project chooses their weekly “scheme” by making sure the themes they pick are universally loved. As they generate more engagement around campus, the project aims to increase the creativity of their activities. They hope to partner with clubs in the future as well.
The genesis for The Friday Project occurred during “a ‘bad week’ of school where everyone was sleep-deprived and stressed—we wanted to do something about it.”
A week after the sock shenanigans, The Friday Project struck again. They bought two cakes, a pack of balloons and party hats and placed them in the Academic Commons. They even brought a bag of Starbursts for students with dietary restrictions.
“We wanted this to have widespread appeal so that as many people as possible could participate,” The Friday Project said.
To maintain a strong level of mystery, The Friday Project has remained anonymous to both students and faculty.
“We read about pranks going on where the goal is to criticize the oppressive practices at the school,” The Friday Project said. “That’s not the goal here at all. We’re not trying to critique the School, but we think the element of not being under the umbrella of ‘school sponsored,’ makes what we’re doing more special.”
The Friday Project said there is no connection between themselves and last year’s AlumNight prank nor do they have any ties to the fictional Angie Baker Lee, but they certainly drew inspiration from her. They intend to keep the suspense going.
“Get excited for next Friday and the Friday after that. And let the mystery continue to be a mystery.”
