Are Traditions as Important to the Life of a School as a Community?
Anyone that grows up in Lisbon understands the importance of tradition. We end summer with Sauerkraut Days, move into Homecoming, start preparing for Prom and end the year with Senior Graduation. Unfortunately, this year there was disappointment over one of Lisbon's Homecoming traditions.
Every year after the burning of the “L”, it has been our tradition for the high school students to jump into the back of a fellow students truck and drive around letting everyone know that it is Lisbon's homecoming. The act of showing pride in being Lion has been encouraged and is written on the walls of the building that many students start preschool and graduate as a life long Lions. All the students that participated in the “caravan” may not have displayed behaviors that you would expect on Sunday morning. However, they were respectful of private property without any vandalism, obeyed the advice of the local police, met town curfews and no one was hurt.
While some were disappointed by the behaviors of some students we were proud of how we came together as a student body and showed the Lisbon/Mt. Vernon communities we had pride in our school and were committed to letting others know we were the Lions from Lisbon.
Traditions matter! All you have to do is look around at the Homecoming events, you'll see your neighbor that graduated from Lisbon 25 years ago, doesn't have any kids in the school and still comes to the events. You can see Lisbon graduates who went away to college and have come back to raise a family with the idea that their kids will participate in the same traditions that brought them back to Lisbon. The school is the center of a small town. The school is where the community connects to make the town a place where everyone wants to live. The celebration of long standing traditions help promote the school, fight declining enrollment and bring people back to this small...