Students ready for Readiness Day at Destin Middle School
Tina Harbuck
The students came and they were ready for Readiness Day at Destin Middle School on Thursday.
Readiness Day is all about getting the students ready for that first day of school, Aug. 10. And part of that getting ready is picking out Spirit Shirts for the upcoming year.
Before the door opened to the gymnasium, which was lined with tables of Spirit Shirts, aka. DMS-branded T-shirts, the line was down the corridor.
“It was like everybody came early,” said Shelby Plasier, a student athlete who manned one of the shirt tables.
“It was pretty substantial,” said Athletic Director Ron Griffiths about that crowd at 11 a.m. when the doors opened.
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In a matter of minutes, the gym was packed with parents and students waiting to pick out that T-shirt or sweatshirt.
“It was like a mad house in here for an hour,” Griffiths said.
The Spirit Shirt sale is a fundraiser for the school with all the proceeds going back into the school for the “betterment of all,” Griffiths said, concerning academics and athletics.
This year, Destin Middle School students had 15 styles or designs of T-shirts to pick from and eight styles of sweatshirts. One of the designs resembles the AC/DC music group logo, while another looks like a design by Vann’s shoes with a checkerboard look.
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Sixth grader Grae Lankowski liked the one with the word “love” on it with a Marlin coming out of the “o.”
The sweatshirts were the hot ticket item. By 12:20 p.m., there were only four sweatshirts left on the sales table. Griffiths said they started with 150.
Although Destin doesn’t have a uniform per say, the students are required to wear a Destin Marlin Spirit Shirt or sweatshirt, Monday through Thursday to school.
“It’s kind of like their uniform shirt,” Griffiths said.
However, the students have a variety to pick from and they get to wear a T-shirt, instead of a polo type shirt.
T-shirts went on sale at 11 a.m. and the gym was to remain open until 4 p.m. If students didn’t make it on Thursday, shirts will be available at orientation on Aug. 5.