The freshmen door decorating contest is back! Every year, Link Crew at Rancho Cucamonga High School hosts a door decorating contest for their freshmen classes. These classes work together to decorate their classroom doors with a Valentine’s Day theme in hopes of winning the donut class party provided by Link Crew.

“Link Crew decorated doors with their freshmen as a fun, interactive, friendly competition!” senior Link Crew President Nicole Kaldas said. “It gives leaders and freshmen a chance to bond over their interests and create a creative door that represents them well.”

Each of the Link Crew leaders has their freshmen class that they have been going to every Monday since the school year began in August. The leaders play games with the freshmen, announce upcoming events, and talk about anything from school to how their weekend was. This relationship allows both the freshmen and the Link Crew leaders to work together on the doors and create the project together. The leaders work with the freshmen for around ten minutes during second period, then continue to work on the door in the Link Crew class.

The voting process is quite simple according to leaders. Kaldas said that each admin in the office is informed of the contest beforehand, and then packets are delivered to them on the judging day. They score the doors on a five-point scale that includes creativity, theme incorporation, etc. Whichever door gets the most points by admin wins.

By creating the door with our class, we were able to come together with our students and showcase our diverse campus at the same time,” senior Link Crew leader Keira Wallace said.

The winning door this year was decorated with hearts and paper cut-outs of the students’ hands.

“It took about two weeks to complete the door because of the details within the poster,” Wallace said. “We also had to make some modifications to fit our door.”

The design was all inclusive and had a contribution from everyone in the class.

When asked about how they came up with the design, Wallace said that they “wanted to pay tribute to Black History Month while also bringing our students together through love.”

This yearly tradition is a way for Link Crew leaders to connect with their freshmen and allow freshmen to feel included with campus activities.

“We wanted to thank Link Crew for giving us access to such an enlightening experience,” Wallace said. “We feel very honored and surprised to be the winners. It was an exciting experience for our students and it brought feelings and joyfulness.”

Some advice for future freshmen is to “be yourself and be excited! High school is a super fun experience. Go to sporting games and show school spirit, it genuinely adds fun and excitement to an everyday routine,” Kaldas said. “Also, join any clubs, programs, or classes you feel like you’d even be slightly interested in because you never know where you might find your passion!”