By: Katie Keyser ’16
Staff Writer

Peddie and Blair have one of the longest high school rivalries of all time: 110 years.

This long withstanding rivalry has brought numerous traditions, including banner making. In preparation for Blair Day on Nov. 9, each dorm created a banner to show Peddie pride and encourage the sports teams that would compete on Blair Day.

“The purpose of banner making is to hype people up for Blair Day and to bring us together,” Alexandra Jones-Twaddell ’16 said. “It really works with the idea of Blair Day because Blair Day brings us all together and gives us a common goal, beating Blair, much like making the banner brings us together and gives us a common goal.”

Every person in the dorm helps in creating the design for the banners, uniting not only the school, but also the students in the dorms.

“Banner making is a good dorm bonding activity and it gets people excited for Blair day,” Luna An ’16 said.

The Blair Day banners help increase school spirit throughout campus.

“Every dorm participates in banner making, so walking around campus during Blair week just improves the school spirit,” Lauren Wieder ’15 said.  “Everywhere you look on campus, you see Peddie pride.”

The banners help bring the Peddie community together as students from all grade levels work together to show their creative talents.

“One of the greatest things about Blair day is that every student from Peddie and every student from Blair contributes to the spirit of the day,” Dean of Students Peter McClellan said. “Whether that’s competing on the field or encouraging and cheering on friends, banner making is part of that cheering on process. While the schools compete against each other in sports, they also compete against each other in school spirit.”

Creating the banners also encourages original thinking and cooperation between students.

“I love the banner making process,” Weider said. “It is nice to just sit down with the whole dorm and get creative as we are counting down the minutes until Blair day.”

Throughout the years, the banner ideas and designs have changed.

“Back in the 80’s, banners were more about Peddie Falcons versus Blair Buccaneers,” mathematics teacher Mark Gartner said. “Information now is so widespread and shared that students make banners based on social media, because everyone knows the references.”

Gartner also remembers Blair Day banner competitions between the dorms in the past.

“We had a year-long dorm competition,” Gartner said. “You would get points for participating in events. The Blair Day banner competition was one way you could score points for your dorm.”

Some of this year’s banners include:

The Mid-Atlantic Prep League School list ranking Peddie as the best, made by Casperson dorm;  Breaking Bucs, a reference to the television show Breaking Bad, made by Masters North; Just Hold on You’re [Potter-Kelly Cup] Coming Home, made by Potter North.