How Loud Can Your Political Rally Get?

Show your support for your political party by throwing a loud and spirited rally!  Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, it’s your time to show your patriotism and your political stance.  Let your red, white, and blue spirit show with fun patriotic decorations.

Decorations

Balloons are a must-have at any gathering, so be sure to stock up!  Throw a fun balloon in every bunch, too, for that added patriotic flair—red or blue star-shaped Mylar balloons would be the perfect touch.  By contrasting the colors of the balloon weights (or even simply using silver balloon weights), you’ll have a very good start to a strong political rally.  In addition to your balloons to set the spirit, you’ll want to get a banner made to show your support for your favorite politician.  You can also find a cardboard standee to place at your rally.

Time for the Little Details

What political rally would be complete without favors and refreshments?  Stock up on stars and stripes plates and napkins as well as red and blue stadium cups.  Most rallies serve cookies and juice, but it would be very easy to integrate fruit, vegetables, chips, and various dips into your snack menu—you could even add small sandwiches to make your political rally that much more memorable.  When considering what beverages to serve, think about lemonade and juice, but also stock up on water bottles.  Cover the labels on the bottles with a personalized rally label.

As far as favors go, handing out miniature American flags and pinwheels is traditional at political rallies.  You can also have stickers and mini mint tins made to hand out.  If you want to do something to say “thank you” to the volunteers who help make your rally happen, put cookies and some of the other snacks in personalized jars, then let your volunteers take the jars home!  They’ll love to have a piece of an event as important and as potentially history-making as your political rally.

After the decorations, the favors, and the refreshments come together, you’ll have a beautifully put-together political rally that will encourage your friends, family, and neighbors to show their patriotic spirit.

Plan A Spirited Sorority Rush

Rushing: A Rite of Passage

When high school is over and college rolls around, students look forward to two big rites of passage: entering fraternities and entering sororities.  Individually, those sororities and fraternities try to push their potential new members by teaching traditions that have passed through the families for decades, traditions that make them who they are.  Typically, this process is known as pledging, for fraternities, or rushing, for sororities.  Sororities usually set aside a week early in the fall semester to focus on rushing the new members.  While there are small amounts of hazing that go with rushing and pledging, the big focus should be on teaching new members those rules and traditions that make your sorority so unique.  The week typically ends with a party, because it’s the perfect way for older, wiser members to welcome their younger counterparts and celebrate a new era in their family.

Show New Recruits Your Spirit

While many students enter college excited for their team and proud to wear their colors, other students place a bigger personal emphasis on their studies.  As a member of a sorority, it’s your job to teach your new recruits about when, where, and how to show their spirit, both for their school and their new sorority.  The best way to do that is to throw a spirit rush party.

Start decorating for your rush party by hanging a spirit banner with your sorority’s name on a wall opposite the entrance of your main party room.  Decorate with your school’s colors using balloons and streamers.  You can also get fun pom-poms in different colors to give to your pledges as a cute favor.

While more often than not, party games taper off as you grow up, you could throw one last big party game at your pledges.  Why not have a car decorating competition?  Gather a small supply of car decorations, such as magnets, flags, and decals, as well as a supply of window chalk.  Have your pledges break into groups.  Each group gets to decorate a car of one of the older members.  The sorority members then get to vote on who has the most spirited car at the rush party.

Rush Week Mixer

Why not be the unique sorority that plans a mixer with the other houses to celebrate rush week?  You could work with the other sororities in the area, as well as the fraternities, to plan a big blow-out that will show your new recruits just how spirited you and your fellow Greeks are.  You can make it a big theme night, gather the groups together and provide pizza and popcorn and make it into one big movie night!  A mixer early in the year is the best way for new students to make friends.

However you choose to celebrate the time-honored tradition that is rush week, do so in a manner that will show your new recruits just how much school spirit your sorority has!

Spirit Supplies for Olympic Cheers

As you, your family, and your friends prepare to watch the 2012 Summer Olympics, stock up on supplies so you can sit back, relax, enjoy the Games, and cheer for Team USA!  Look for spirit supplies, like pom-poms and beads.  Wherever you plan to enjoy the Games, your party space will need decorations, too, that can double as a backdrop for those spirited cheers.

Background Decorations

Look for patriotic paper to hang on your walls as a backdrop.  A personalized banner will also add a nice touch to your decorations; you could personalize it to say “Go Team USA!” and re-use it!  Adding a few decorative columns and streamers will give your cheer wall some flair, too. Try looking for small red, white, and blue cardboard columns and then placing a different centerpiece on each one.

You could also look into hanging metallic stars with streamers draping down from them—it’s a great backdrop that you’ll be able to use for a number of occasions.  Finally, no party decorations are complete without balloons!  Look for some American-flag-shaped Mylar balloons and add red and blue latex to make fun balloon bundles to decorate the area in which you and your friends will be watching the Olympic Games.

Cheer Supplies for the Olympic Games

Americana leis are not only a great party favor, but they could also be a valuable asset as you and your friends come up with fun Olympic cheers.  Pom-poms are a classic cheer supply that you can never have enough of, especially while viewing the Summer Olympic Games.  Noisemakers and whistles will provide added spirit, but be mindful of any children watching the Games with you—they’ll have much more fun with whistles and noisemakers than anyone else in the room.

The types of cheers you and your friends come up with don’t matter quite as much as the reasoning behind the cheers or the enjoyment you and your friends get out of gathering together and making the cheers.  By putting up patriotic decorations and providing friends with fun favors, you’ll be sure to show your American spirit.  Support Team USA in the Summer Olympic Games with your friends, some cheer supplies, and a few spirited cheers!