Perspective of the Friendship Day environment

PHOTO: Students at Friendship Day enjoy getting to know each other through one of the group activities. (Courtesy Photo: Nola George)

By Maria Anderson,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

“Friendship Day was started in the late eighties after a racially motivated stabbing at Davis High.  It was created to avoid situations like that and break down social and economic barriers, cliques and stereotypes,” president of Friendship Day Molly Dyer said.

The goal of Friendship Day has always been to continue building community through aspects of fun, laughing and joy.   

“It is a safe place where anyone and everyone comes together to share experiences and be vulnerable as a group,” vice president of Friendship Day Athena Leckie said.

Friendship Day occurs on the first Fridays of the month throughout the school year with fun bonding activities, food and entertainment.  

“A big part of friendship day is your discussion groups which are decided by a colored or symboled card you receive. These are groups you come back to several times during the day which allows for a more intimate experience with your peers since these groups are smaller (generally between five to 10 people),” Leckie said.

Each Friendship Day consists of a new theme that the committee comes up with.  

“As a group, at the start of the year, we had our secretary write down a list of ideas for themes we’d made up. Prior to every friendship day, we check that list and/or create a new theme and decide together as a whole group,” Dyer said.

For the previous Friendship Day, the theme consisted of “Career Day” and as an example, Leckie dressed up as a professional skier.  

“We try to make every friendship day a new and exciting theme,” Leckie said.

The planned activities for each of the days stays the same since each Friendship Day involves different students.  Some activities involve “Rock Paper Scissors,” “I like my Neighbor” and “Soulmates.” 

But the committee accepts student feedback after each Friendship Day, making sure to include all student opinions.  

“The students are the ones that really shape the day and make the games different each time. It will change slightly in the way we go about things in light of the feedback from previous friendship days,” Dyer said.

The next Friendship Day is planned to take place on Dec. 9.  The theme hasn’t been decided on yet, but some students will receive an invitation about a week before the event takes place.

“If you get an invite, we highly recommend you coming. It’s an extremely unique, one of a kind experience,” Dyer said.