Submitted photoTeacher Leigh Barwick’s door design, a fluffy polar bear.

THOMASVILLE — The halls of Thomas County Central High School were decked in festive scenes prior to the Christmas holidays.

The occasion was the school’s annual door decorating contest, hosted this year by the TCCHS Spirit Club.

“We hoped to get everyone in the Christmas Spirit and raise overall school spirit,” club co-sponsor Allison NeSmith said.

This year’s contest had a small change: all classroom doors on A Hall are new and teachers were not allowed to adhere anything to them. Instead, they were encouraged to decorate their classroom entryways. This means there were two categories: best entryway and best door.

Students and teachers throughout the school were involved in decorating their classroom door or entryway.

“I wanted to participate in this contest because it’s a fun thing to do to show off creativity with your classmates,” senior Ariana Warren said.  

More than 40 doors and entryways participated. Club co-sponsor Bethany Hayes made a judges’ criteria. The teachers and their students had free reign to express their creative ideas.

Hayes reached out to nine members of the extended Thomas County Schools’ family to ask them to judge the doors. Each door was rated by each judge on a scale from 1 to 10, rating their creativity, uniqueness and overall holiday spirit. Judging took place Dec. 15 and winners were announced during that afternoon’s winter pep rally.

TCCHS math teachers Amber Niswonger and Joedi Barnes won first place for their collaborative entryway. They and their students decorated the entryway of their classrooms (across the hall from each other) like “The Central Station” including the Jacket Express train. They were inspired by “The Polar Express.”

“We were super excited that we won,” Niswonger said. “We put in late nights and hard work. There was a lot of tough competition, but the hard work paid off.”

Runners up in the best entryway competition were Levi Williams in second place and Sharon Davis in third.

Warren and her fellow Move On When Ready (dual enrollment) students earned first place in the best door category. They incorporated MOWR into their design and created two elves holding each other up in the snow, peeking through the window of a house as Santa places gifts under the Christmas tree, which was depicted on the door’s other side. Their entry was finished by being bedecked with snow and lights with a real mailbox for Santa letters outside.

“I’m so proud of my students,” MOWR support teacher Teresa Williams said. “Everyone put their heads together and used their unique skills to produce an incredibly creative design.”

Second and third place in best door design went to Melody Garland and Tammy Simmons, respectively.

Winning entries were treated to a special breakfast on Tuesday, Dec. 19. A variety of foods were provided including doughnuts and sausage biscuits.