Brainerd High School Celebrates Learning, Community at 4th Annual Warrior Day

Brainerd High School hosted its fourth annual Warrior Day last week. It was an opportunity for the student body, staff, and all involved to take part in a day dedicated to fun, learning, and community.

The event started with a talent show.

“[We’re] trying to incorporate as many different types of our students as possible,” said Alexis Marcelo, Brainerd High School math teacher and Student Council advisor. “We are able to bring in kids who are musically talented and sometimes do not participate in a form of a music course. We’ve got singers, singers playing drums, singers playing piano, a jazz combination. It really is just a fun way to just incorporate everybody.”

TEDx and international speaker Tanner Clark also shared some words of wisdom with the Warrior faithful.

“We were able to partner with Crow Wing Energized and they were able to get him on our campus,” said Marcelo. “We do recognize that social media influences so many different aspects of our lives, students and adults. We are just kind of hoping that he can show the positive ways to use social media.”

Students even got to take part in a job fair.

“We hope that getting these businesses onto our campus, that we can either set them up with a job, an internship, get them ideas of things that they can feasibly do into their future,” Marcelo explained. “Or maybe just as a summer job, just putting it all into one focused day is perfect.”

And it wouldn’t be Warrior Day without finding a way to give back to the community, such as helping The Outreach Program of Brainerd Lakes with packing up meals for those in need.

“For us to be here and be a part of Warrior Day just means that sense of community is large,” said Outreach Program Executive Director Shawn Hansen. “We work with these kids a lot throughout the school year, but it’s something different when you can come into their building and see that kids really want to have an impact on their communities.”

“We’re trying to build community here at Brainerd High School, which is good,” said Brainerd High School Agriculture Education Teacher Magnus Nelson. “I think it can be lacking at times, but we want the kids to understand that hey, they belong here.”

Warrior Day is all about the students and giving them a chance to learn outside of the classroom while connecting with fellow peers. It’s an occasion the kids and staff appear to love.

“If people could see how kids look when they’re passing through the hallways and their experiences when they’re here,” Marcelo added. “It’s just an opportunity to see students and teachers differently and I think that that’s super important.”

Warrior Day capped off with a polar plunge, which raised money for Special Olympics Minnesota and other Brainerd High School clubs.