When instructional assistant Justin Weiner was a freshman at Glenbrook North in 2001, he could name almost all the seniors.

“The sports studs, the basketball players, you knew [who] those people were,” said Weiner. “You could come on a Friday and everyone would be in green and gold: teachers, students [and] freshmen all the way to seniors.”

When he returned to his alma mater  as a member of the staff, he said he noticed a decline in student awareness of what is happening in the school and the pride throughout the student body.

“I take a little poll in my head,” said Weiner. “How many of the first 10 teachers I see are wearing green and gold? How many students? It’s something so simple, but we don’t really participate in it anymore.”

To combat this decline in school spirit, Weiner said that he wanted to make a change that would lead GBN in the right direction. He did this by creating the Spartan Spirit Initiative.

“My mind started the process last year in trying to figure out ways to do this, identifying obstacles,” said Weiner. “I want to connect to the past and create a comprehensive and sustainable plan that will increase the spirit, taking what was in the past and taking what we have now and molding the two together.”

According to Weiner, the Spartan Spirit Initiative is a club that is scheduled to begin second semester. He said he plans for the club to renew the “somewhat dwindling sense of community” in GBN, promote extracurricular events and generate participation in spirit days. He said not only will the club promote and have its students attend sporting events that many fans do not attend, but it will support the fine arts as well.

Sophomore Lara Amidei said she thinks many people do not go to games, excluding football, because of the scarce attendance.

“People might be afraid that their friends won’t be there or that they’ll be the only ones showing up to the basketball game,” Amidei said.

Paraprofessional Michael Nabolotny, who is running the club alongside Weiner, said he hopes the presence of the club “will get people out at events.”

Although Weiner and Nabolotny will be advisors, Weiner said he envisions the club to be run by students.

“It’s basically an opportunity for students to get involved and get started spreading school spirit around,” Nabolotny said.

According to Weiner, the Down to the River Boys will be some of the leaders of the club, along with chosen student leaders from each grade level. He said that he wanted leaders from each grade so that everyone can be valued as a member of the school.

“I want to initiate [a spirit-raising] process that can last for a while and doesn’t have to necessarily be maintained by a supervisor,” said Weiner. “I want it to be something that the students can own.”

According to Weiner, the overarching theme of the club is to raise awareness.

“Many students in the morning aren’t really listening to announcements,” said Weiner. “By the end of the day, you’ve gone through four classes. You’ve gone through a lot.”

He said the chance of a student remembering what was said in the morning is lower than if it was the last thing the student heard. He has plans to make announcements at the end of the day on Mondays and Fridays. Announcements on Monday will highlight athletic events from the past weekend and preview events in the coming week, and announcements on Friday will highlight athletic events from the week and preview events for the coming weekend.

Freshman Pari Thakkar said she never hears the announcements in the morning.

“I’m not well informed,” said Thakkar. “This is kind of an Academy thing. We come at [8 a.m.] to school, since Academy starts at 8 [a.m.], so I always miss the announcements.”

She said she agrees that if people are reminded about the games, it would increase the number of people attending, since she herself tends to forget about the many sporting events that are occurring. Another plan the advisers have for the club is publicizing a new “slogan.”

“[The Varsity Girls Basketball team started] the ‘We the North’ campaign which is another way that we are trying to raise the school spirit by getting a slogan, like a rallying cry that kids can stand behind,” Nabolotny said.

Weiner said this club is meant to emphasize the value of each student.

“You want to be able to support each other,” said Weiner. “Go out to support your classmates, because if you support them, most likely they’ll support you too.”

He said he hopes the student body will have “more of a mesh” where underclassmen know the upperclassmen and athletes support the theater kids and vice versa.

“One of my favorite quotes is, ‘Where there is unity, there is strength. Where this is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved,’” said Weiner. “We need unity. That’s the goal. We want to create a school and a student body that is like a group and family.”