By Elena Coe-McNamara
Staff Writer
Roughly five weeks ago, a new phenomenon began at Mira Costa High School. Founded by Costa juniors, Sam Sturges and Kyle Fiene, Bucket Hat Tuesday is an attempt to create a new tradition of wearing a bucket hat every Tuesday.
Bucket Hat Tuesday was started unintentionally; Sam Sturges wore a bucket hat to school and his friend Kyle Fiene, complimented him on it. The two proposed the idea that they should wear the hats every Tuesday and begin a trend.
“Now we see it as a way to unify the school due to our lack of school spirit,” said co-founder Sam Sturges. “Also it’s an awesome feeling to have come up with something and for people to be willing to join in on your idea.”
There is an average of 20 students who participate by wearing a bucket hat. The movement is promoted through Instagram, Facebook, word of mouth, and by participators. Through these social media platforms, the hashtag ‘#buckethatuesday’ can be used to find pictures from the event.
“I post a picture every Bucket Hat Tuesday in order to show more support and rally more bucketeers to join us next week,” freshman Shelby Friedman said.
Every Tuesday the students take a photo on the stage of the Mustang Mall in order to promote their movement. On Tuesdays, students can be found throughout Costa wearing bucket hats in order to unite their school and promote school spirit.
“It’s great to bring together a group of kids and have a common bond,” senior Nicki Durazo said. “Since I’m leaving for college next year, I wanted to get involved as much as possible with everything school spirit related and this was just one aspect.”
According to Kyle Fiene, Bucket Hat Tuesday attracts a plethora of students of all ages who join to support. So far, the highest number of participants is 25 people. The number continues to increase every week due to more students’ awareness of what is going on.
“I thought it was fun and how cool it was for them to have a goal of 10% of the school participating,” Durazo said. “So I wanted to join in and help them represent something they enjoy.”
It is unknown whether the movement will be continued in the coming school years. Many of the participants will be leaving for college this summer, therefore Bucket Hat Tuesday’s fate is undetermined.
“I think we will continue to do Bucket Hat Tuesday because we believe that it can grow and unite Costa students through the love of bucket hats,” Fiene said.
Bucket Hat Tuesday is growing not only on Costa’s campus, but Active El Segundo has decided to sponsor the event as well. The majority of the hats worn have been bought at Active, which brings them in business.
“We met the young men that are behind it and we thought they had a good idea, and that they had a cool vision and we wanted to get on board and support them and support the community and local high school,” manager of Active El Segundo, Cliff Mitchell said.
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