Hey Bears! Welcome BACK to The Bear Bulletin, where we write all about M-A Leadership’s hard work. As the month comes to a close, we are going to be charting all of our events, outreach, and spirit from the spooky season!
October is a notorious month for us L-Ship bears; it's full of events and hard, hard work. Regardless, it is one of our favorites. We switch committees mid-way through, which is always a cause for excitement, as well as putting on some of the best events of the year like Powderpuff and Homecoming. We can't wait for you to read all about it. If you thought the start of the school-year was jam-packed, you're in for a treat.
Starting the month, we remained in our quarter one committees until mid-October, then switched into quarter two.
The first-quarter committees in fourth period consisted of:
Staff Appreciation (Axel Pilette, Shawnak Shivakumar)
Theme days (Alessandra Hartwig and committee)
Lunchtime Events (Willow Basta and committee)
M-Asters (Evie Filipek, Sam Richman, and committee)
Homecoming (Liri Maoz, Ellie Dillon, and committee)
Rally (Mia Sanchez and committee)
The first-quarter committees in fifth period consisted of:
H20-lympics (Molly Gray and committee)
Custodial Appreciation (Mica Podoly and committee)
Drives (Viet-Tran Gemma and committee)
Trick Or Treat Street (Lila Weber, Gaelen Booth, and committee)
Powderpuff (Caroline Rose, Isabelle Habibi, and committee)
Pre-CFD (Aarii Keswani and committee)
Class Clash (Avery Williams and committee)
The second-quarter committees in fourth period consisted of:
CFD Design (Alexa Habibi and committee)
The second-quarter committees in fifth period consisted of:
D-Day Committee (Auden Jones, Aarii Keswani, and committee)
Bins (Quinn Robbins and committee)
Community Outreach (Viet-Tran Gemma and committee)
Clubs and Sports (Molly Gray and committee)
Social Media and Miscellaneous (Avery Williams, Millo Shikiri, and committee)
Community Advertising (Lila Weber and committee)
Clothing Drive (Grace Gundy and committee)
Read on to hear all about our adventures and developments in all of our committees!
Consisting only of Shawnak and Axel, this committee spent Quarter 1 showing love to different groups of M-A staff. They made posters, wrote thank you notes, brought flowers, coffee, and donuts, and even catered lunches for the counseling office. Each week focused on a new group including food service, all staff, counselors, custodians, and admin. Everything was student-led and mostly funded by themselves, and they made sure every event felt personal and genuine. It was all about spreading gratitude and reminding staff how much they mean to the M-A community.
Dawg Day was a big hit this year, drawing around 450–500 students to the blacktop for hot dogs, music, and games. The committee, led by Alessandra, alongside some other L-Ship helpers, sold 360 hot dogs, stayed within their budget, and created a fun picnic vibe with checkered tablecloths, a hotdog cutout, games, and a barbecue dad dress up theme.
Pickle Day will be featured in our October issue!
Throughout September, the Lunchtime Events Committee hosted many fun lunchtime events that brought students together and boosted school spirit on the green.They started with Chalk Day, where mostly juniors and seniors used colorful chalk to decorate the walkways with creative art. Cookie Decorating was a few days after that, giving students a chance to design and enjoy their own cookies with icing and sprinkles. Donut on a String had a huge turnout as students competed to eat hanging donuts without using their hands. To wrap up the month they organized Soak a Senior. Students could pour buckets of water on senior volunteers, creating one of the most interactive and entertaining events of the quarter.
Each event was easy to organize, had great participation, and brought lots of smiles to M-A--and they have more to come in October!
The M-A Happy Hygiene Drive collected hygiene products through donation bins placed around the community and created 80 hygiene kits for the Samaritan House in San Mateo, which distributes them to low-income families and individuals. Flyers were posted at school and in local businesses, and announcements were shared through BearNotes, M-A Today, and the L-Ship Instagram page to encourage donations of dental, feminine, and body care products. Students who donated received candy deliveries as a thank-you. Bins were located at M-A, Willow’s Market, Laurel Lower Campus, and Hillview Middle School, with committee members checking them regularly. Although communication with some schools and businesses was difficult, phone calls proved successful. The drive collected over 800 items, and each hygiene kit contained 10–12 products, making the event a meaningful and successful community effort.
Non-committee led events in August and September were Back To School Night, Club Rush, and Eighth Grade Info Night. Each went very well and supported our current and future parents as well as our ambitious student body.
Thank you for reading our first monthly recap on The Bear Bulletin. Leadership is so excited for the rest of this quarter and year. Stay tuned for our October edition to read about all of the hard work that our Homecoming, Rally, Trick-Or-Treat Street, H2Olympics, M-Asters, Custodial Appreciation, and Powderpuff committees have done!
Written and organized by Leadership's 2025-2026 Historian, Avery Williams