2022 marks the 18th year Redwood has conducted the Mr. Ranger Spirit week.
This time ASB added a slight twist by considering the addition of Mrs. Ranger as well. This spirit week will now be known as “Ranger Week”.
The Mr ranger tradition first shows up in Redwood’s Log yearbook in 2004. Mr. Ranger week is a spirit week at Redwood High School dedicated historically to 5 male nominees who are voted into competing in the Mr. Ranger competition.
The top 5 nominees would then choose a female escort and the week consisted of fun lunchtime activities leading up to a pageant show on a Thursday night ion the gym.
Candidates won titles such as Mr. Kindness, Mr. Funny, Mr. Creative, Mr. Buff, and lastly Mr. Ranger.
Though the way Mr. Ranger week has been conducted has not always been consistent, its roots date back to that first year in 2004 when it was introduced.
After a 2 year break from 2005-2006, in 2007 Redwood ASB organized a Mr. Ranger week that started up again during the week of March 12, 2007 through March 16th 2007.
This year, 2022 marks the 15th annual Mr. Ranger tradition now known as the 1st Annual Ranger week.
The 2007 Redwood Log yearbook shows that the tradition consisted first with a full week of activities and lots manly competition with a total of 5 male nominees from different clubs and sports within Redwood.
One lunchtime activity from the 2007 Mr Ranger week involved a watermelon hot potato challenge were the nominees would all form groups of their supporters and challenge one another to try to not drop the melon and win the hot potato challenge.
One of the most iconic and important traditions of the event is the Mr. Ranger Trophy which is made up of a plunger attached to a mannequin head.
Every crowned Mr. Ranger has gotten the opportunity to sign any part of the mannequin head with their school year and name.
Teachers and Redwood Alumni recall their experiences with past Mr. Ranger weeks.
Mrs Galvan says “..I have no idea where [the trophy] came from. I know that Mr Miller and I worked in the Academic Building and one day somebody had left the basement open and we went snooping around and found a mannequin with a plunger..”
Galvan says “.. I know that when I first started teaching here I think that it came about in some odd weird way that some guy went “This will be the trophy” and they did it as a joke and now we are stuck with it..”
“… [the trophy] used to just disappear after Mr Ranger, and sometimes it would re-appear before the next Mr Ranger and sometimes it wouldn’t and then I’d say recently it became whatever clubs nominee won, that advisor would be responsible for the plunger mannequin head in their classrooms …”
Galvan says that she has had 2 winners in the past 4 years: Bryan Trejo ‘19, and Cade Gann ‘21. “I’ve had the mannequin head for 3 years now because of COVID-19 so its just stayed in my room..”
This year’s Mr Ranger brings change.
Mrs Galvan says “..This is the first time that we have ever had an outdoors assembly during school and so that’s a huge deal.”
Ms. Aguilar was activities director for her first 3 years at Redwood as well as a graduated Redwood Alumni from the class of 2012.
Aguilar says “.. One of the first things you always have to consider is safely and inclusion… you always want to make sure that wherever it is that you do as a school that it connects kids to school and makes them excited to come to school and dress up..”
Aguilar says “…If [including women] makes more kids feel included then I feel that its a great change for Redwood, but since its never been done before I’m not used to it because we never did it when i was in high school but I say we must try it out first and see how it goes..”
Ms. Aguilar says that “We just really try to get every single student involved, there really shouldn’t be barriers and so I feel that if adding a Mrs to Mr Ranger week allows kids to feel more involve and safer within their schools that now we have done our jobs as a school.”
Mr Miller, former activities director from 2001-2008 and then 2015-2017, says “things change all the time, they do, so I don’t have a feeling about it other than the fact that things change..”
Miller says “… My best memory was just the idea of boys being silly and wearing silly costumes and showing their spirit for being a Redwood Ranger. I think this week is dedicated to celebrating the spirited seniors that were elected by clubs or sports. Its just people celebrating being Rangers and those who are remembered are the Rangers who do it big with gusto”
This year, Ranger Week includes 5 Girls and 5 Boys who will participate in the lunch time activities and will be scored every single day on a 1-5 point scale based on being most spirited, most involved in the challenges, best dressed etc.
Mrs Aston, RHS Activities Director, says “..Mr Ranger [this year] follows a more pageant outline, so they will have an interview portion, a talent portion, another portion where we highlight the candidates and then we will have a performance or two while the candidates are being voted for…”
Ms. Aston says managing community expectations has been challenging but “students have gone and met with people who have been on our campus for a long time to find out what Mr Ranger was like in the past..”