Dressed as Gru, Guy Fieri and even a real life cardinal, junior Ellie Callaci wasn’t just participating in spirit week – she was spirit week.

STUCO announced their spirit themes for homecoming week which spanned from Sept. 23-27. The study body voted on this year’s themes: Minion Day, Twin Day, On Wednesdays we wear pink, BBQ Dads vs. Soccer Moms and Cardinal Day.

Callaci was “very excited for most of the themes.”

Each day Callaci woke up and transformed into a new character, putting full effort into every costume she wore, leaving her audience with jaws dropped.

“It was funny walking through the hallways,” Callaci said. “Everyone was pointing and laughing and my friends didn’t even recognize me or notice who I was.”

Callaci embraced the uncomfortable moments and used spirit week as a time to challenge herself.

“Her spirit week outfits were really interesting,” sophomore Bettina Soucy said. “I feel like it made everyone excited to come to school to see what she was going to dress up as every single day.”

On Monday, Callaci morphed into the Gru in honor of Minion day. She wore a bald cap, a long nose, drawn on thick eyebrows and even had the gray and black scarf. She carried around a fart gun and was taking photos with anyone who asked her to.

Originally considering being a purple minion, Callaci’s friends “told [her she] should be Gru” and the pieces just fell into place after that. Her Amazon cart was full of the items needed to complete her look as she started brainstorming for the perfect costume.

“I was very impressed with Ellie’s effort in her outfits and it was so nice to see someone actually dressing up for the themes since many didn’t,” junior Carly Ostrin said.

Tuesday was a break for Callaci.

“Tuesday was twin day,” Callaci said. “So my friends and I matched wearing the same shirt.”

This simple theme showed their friendship through their twinning.

Wednesday turned a lot of heads. Callaci walked into school covered in pink from head to toe. From the neon pink wig to the completely pink face, she collected pink clothing and accessories through borrowing and thrifting.

“Pink day was something that just came to me in the spur of the moment,” Callaci said. “I asked my mom if I should paint my whole face as a joke, and she said yes.”

Thursday, Callaci let out her inner BBQ dad and took on a new persona of “Dave” for the day, bringing many smiles and laughs to the people walking the halls.

“Barbeque dad was one of my favorite days,” Callaci said. “I had this Guy Fieri wig from a Halloween costume a few years ago, so I pulled that out of my closet.”

Friday marked the end of spirit homecoming week and Callaci took this last chance to show off her Cardinal spirit. She walked the halls in her cardinal onesie with face paint as the final touch of her costume.

“I knew I was going to wear the cardinal onesie and do some face paint,” Callaci said. “I needed to keep outdoing myself and building on [my outfits] throughout the week.”

However, Callaci believes there is more to spirit week than just dressing up and going “all out.”

“It’s so fun to see someone in the hallway you have never met and point and wave to them,” Callaci said. “Because they are wearing something really cool and interesting.”

Callaci thinks that spirit week is the perfect time to express herself and “make people laugh at her ridiculousness” because of how school spirit ties the community together.

“I think that this joy created is such a great unifying factor for all the students at Bellaire, no matter their grade, sport or class level,” Callaci said. “Everyone needs to laugh sometimes.”