For the past several years, Hamburg Area High School has held a school-wide door decorating contest where every homeroom has the chance to come up with creative ideas, work as a whole, and win donuts. For the past two years, the themes were based on musicals such as The Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins, but the two years before that, they just did fall or sports themes. Mrs. Deitz, Mrs. Dommel, and Mrs. King’s homerooms have all been in the top three for the past two years. In 2022, Mrs. Keck’s homeroom won with their Hocus Pocus-themed door. In 2023, Mrs. Deitz’s homeroom also won the fall theme for that year with a fishbowl-themed door. They also won first place again in 2024, but this year, in 2025, they passed the torch to Mrs. Dommel’s homeroom.
Some students who have helped work on Mrs. Deitz’s door in the library conference room have enjoyed it over the past three years that they participated in the competition. Danny Barata, who is a homeroom student, explained that his favorite theme was when they did the fishbowl, because even the homeroom on the inside had decorations, but he also enjoyed Mrs. Deitz being photoshopped into Dorthy. He thinks that it is a fun time to work with peers. Although he is happy his homeroom has done well every year, he was bummed that they could not pull off the win this year, even with all of their creativity and inclusion of their homeroom. Bethany Stufflet, on the other hand, who is a student of Mr. McBreen’s homeroom, has helped Mrs. Deitz’s homeroom every year. One year, her homeroom had participated, but they had not done well overall, so she felt that since she was friends with students in Mrs. Deitz’s homeroom that she would help them, as it let her use her creativity more. She had felt that their ranking this year was fair, and that they had a bit of an unfair advantage due to the eight panels that the homeroom decorates. Overall, she was glad that she could help them pull off multiple wins.
Overall, both students have had a great time each year decorating for Mrs. Deitz’s homeroom. Hopefully, next year, the homerooms will do just as well. Good job to all of the homerooms that participated!
