This is Hayes’ second year of their Spring Pacer Fest, run by the Pacer Spirit Committee, where they bring attention to athletes from each athletic season at Hayes.
During the Spring Pacer Fest, the committee highlights all spring sports such as baseball, softball, boys’ tennis, boys and girls track and field, boys’ volleyball and boys and girls lacrosse for both the high school and middle school.
The committee is led by Brooke Brenner, who is a sixth grade social studies teacher at Dempsey, along with three other teachers throughout Delaware City Schools.
“I help oversee and provide guidance for different elements of our group,” Brenner said. “[Like] our social media accounts, donations and of course writing the scripts for our Pacer Fest events.”
Pacer Fest is an idea that the group thought of to bring the Delaware community together after Covid-19 had restricted other community events.
“Our group started as a very small group of teachers, parents and high school students who saw a void in our school community and decided to be the solution,” Brenner said.
The group was ambitious at the beginning with a long list of events to coordinate.
“Our list of solutions was really long at first and included ideas such as bringing back the homecoming parade, reinstating the homecoming community bonfire,” Brenner said. “Hosting a district wide spirit week, recognizing athletes of the week, hosting mini pep rallies at the elementary schools, organizing team send-offs for special games, etc.”
All of these were activities Delaware City Schools once did, but eventually they tailed off due to population growth and covid restrictions.
The committee eventually narrowed all of their ideas down to one, then brought the proposal of a community pep rally for each athletic season at the middle school and high school to life.
The committee plans to expand their group and to keep on bringing the community together each athletic season.
The pep rally consists of introducing each sport from the high school and middle school, with activities throughout that highlight students of the month at each elementary school, allowing younger kids to be involved as well.
The pep rally also holds booths that each sport can host so that their program can earn some money.
“[I most enjoy] the Pacer spirit and how our community comes together to celebrate our spring sports,” said Grace Singleton, a junior center fielder for the Hayes softball team.
The committee also has active students at Hayes and Dempsey in their committee, including students like Clara Bruestle, who is a junior.
Bruestle helps plan each Pacer Fest along with the other members, helping to run the social media accounts and coordinate the event to ensure it runs smoothly.
“I got involved because one of my former teachers, Mrs. Brenner reached out to me asking if I would be interested in joining,” Bruestle said.
Bruestle has many different jobs at Pacer Fest and they differentiate for each event and where help is needed.
“At this past Spring Pacer Fest, aside from setting up and cleaning up, my main job was coordinating the athletes behind the scenes and letting them know when to walk in,” Bruestle said.
The committee is actively looking for people to join their group of spirited teachers, parents and students. Those interested should email [email protected] with their name.
