What Was Hawk Harvest/Fest?

Hawk Harvest, originally called Hawk Fest, was a school-wide event that ran from 2015 to 2019. It was organized by the student government association (SGA) and UHS Minithon, with two of the main teachers behind the program being Ward and Mr. Mathew Ferrante.

UHS Minithon was an organization started by alum Jacob Mittereder in 2015 as a way to fundraise and to raise school spirit. Hawk Harvest was one in a series of events that was held by the club to help raise funds for pediatric cancer research. 

Minithon used to be a large part of the school spirit before the pandemic, with Ward explaining that, “When Minithon was in existence from 2015 to 2020, it was a year-long campaign. They would hold 5k runs, color runs, they helped put on Homecoming and so a portion of the proceeds from Homecoming went to children with pediatric cancer as well. They did No Shave November where kids campaigned and the kids who raised the lowest had their head shaved.”

Hawk Harvest specifically was the Mini-thon run event for the fall. It was held in the auditorium and had many different student organizations and honors societies who participated. Specifically, the drama department used to participate, which is where  the idea for Boo Bash came from according to Ward, “At Hawk Harvest, the dramadepartment did this haunted hallway event. Some of my students went to Hawk Harvest and Hawk Fest as a child, and they remembered those events and wanted to bring something like that back.”

After the pandemic Ward and Ferrante were left without any students who had been around when Minithon had been occurring. Without any students left to organize, and with a school still partially online from 2021-2022, it was incredibly difficult to get the club going again. Ultimately UHS Minithon was unable to continue after the pandemic, which has made planning school-wide events, such as Boo Bash more difficult.