The holiday season is known for bringing people together. Mepham’s SADD Club recently hosted its “Doors For A Cause” event, which aided in the assembly of a variety of extracurricular groups to win a contest, but also to deck-the-halls of the school with holiday cheer.
Doors For A Cause is an annual and highly anticipated occasion at Mepham. The usual basis of the event is for extracurricular groups or specific classes to find an available door, usually their own, and decorate it with holiday paraphernalia that fits into that year’s requirements. In order to partake, participants need to donate $20 as a fundraiser for the Community Cupboard. Yearly consistent requirements rule out the use of duct tape and anything that has to be plugged into an outlet. The 2025 Doors For a Cause competition requirements were that the door had to detail a holiday tradition, and that a pirate had to be participating in such. Thus, the aforementioned groups set off to think of original and popular traditions and how they would express them with colored paper, sparkly ribbons, scissors, and some Elmer’s glue.
Some examples of fun and creative doors included room 236, which the Buccaneer newspaper sponsored. The design was a play on words regarding the popular “Elf on the Shelf,” featuring Johnny Depp’s well known character Jack Sparrow in “Jack on the Stack,” where he is in an elf costume and seated on a stack of newspapers. In the science hallway a “punny” design on room 118’s door showcased a “Chemis-tree,” which was made out of periodic table elements and topped with the element “Au,” or gold, in the shape of a star. Room 326 also recognized the spirit of Christmas by transforming their door and nearby hallway space into “The Polar Express,” with Ms. Geller and Mr. Patten as the conductors and others peering out of the windows of the train.
The deadline for the completion of the doors was December 19 and the results were posted on December 22, with the winner being Room 225 Ms. LaRossa, Ms. Hanley, Ms.Roth, and Mr. Ryan for a second year in a row.
The Buccaneer came in a “very close second place” according to SADD advisor Ms. Frend. Third place went to Ms. DeGrazia, Ms. Zgoda, and Mr. Richards for Room 233’s Door of Carols. Students and staff alike got a kick out of pressing the buttons and hearing the familiar voices belt out their favorite holiday tunes! Every door was adorned with not only colorful depictions of holiday customs, but also effort and community building that proves the collaboration of students with staff and the commitment to participation in school events being as strong as ever.