Mad for the Marauders

A Recap of the 2024 Maclay Marauder Madness Spirit Week

Photo by Sara Mnookin/Maclay Andalusian

With spring break only a week away, students are tirelessly waiting for the chance to relax and to take a break from studying. To add a bit of fun into this seemingly normal week, Marauder Madness takes place, which gives students the privilege to dress up, participate in break games and steer off from their everyday school schedule.

Marauder Madness was originally created by the yearbook class and began in 2008 as Maclay School’s second semester spirit week intended to celebrate spring sports and academic achievements. The fun-filled week incorporates all grades and is a great way to show off Maclay’s school spirit. A fun aspect of Marauder Madness that everyone enjoyed was the puzzle challenge that took place all week.

“I personally love the puzzle challenge,” Dean of Upper School Student Affairs Heather Bas said. “I write all the clues and I like it to be something a little different than the key hunt for homecoming where there are clues to help find the key, this [puzzle challenge] is a kind of puzzle where you have to use your wits and logic to figure it out.”

Marauder Madness officially began on Monday, March 4. As students strolled into school in their comfiest pjs, they were eager to get this week started. To kick off Marauder Madness, a high school assembly was held in the Cartee gym. The first break game of the week was played during this time and consisted of three five-or-so minute dodgeball rounds, with different Maclay sports teams switching in and out to compete against each other. In the final round, the boy's and girl's tennis teams went against the baseball and softball teams. This year’s winning teams were baseball and softball.

Tuesday’s dress-up theme was Tropical Tuesday, and students all around were seen in Hawaiian shirts, floppy hats and Birkenstocks. The music club was also performing in Langford Hall during homeroom on Tuesday and Wednesday for all students to enjoy.

“I like the dress up days [most about Marauder Madness],” senior Brinkley Snow said. “It’s fun to get to dress down all week.”

Wacky Wednesday made its way into the crazy week, and students were instructed to bring anything but a backpack to school. Students had a blast seeing what creative items their classmates brought onto campus, which included coolers, tote bags, baskets and even wagons. Model UN hosted the break game for Wednesday and asked students in the courtyard trivia questions.

Towards the end of the week, on Thursday, the theme was color wars. Each grade level was assigned a different color that correlated with a lower and middle school grade as well. Freshmen wore red, sophomores wore green, juniors wore orange and seniors wore blue. In addition to this, the break game was held in Webster, which was a canned food race. Six students from each grade were representing their grade as a whole in the race. The overall goal of the first annual food race was to bring in as many canned foods as possible to help bring awareness towards food insecurity. The winning team was the sophomores.

The blue and white day finished off Marauder Madness on Friday. To end Marauder Madness, a one-school pep rally was held in the Webster gym to commemorate the special week.

“With Marauder Madness, we have a week dedicated just to the spirit of Maclay,” junior Niva Ryster said. “It’s also very student ordinated where students can choose the days and there are committees for it and everything so it’s [always] focused on what we want [which is why Marauder Madness is so special to students].”