Spirit Week Eiffel Tower taken down

November 24, 2015

Senior Council members push the second layer of the Eiffel Tower down. (Mahsa Mostaan)

By AISHEE DAS
News Editor
The Spirit Week Eiffel Tower located in the 300s was taken down on Friday, November 20, due to safety concerns that arose. The 27-foot Eiffel Tower was constructed by the Senior Class Council for Spirit Week.
The Eiffel Tower remained in the 300s after Spirit Week while the Senior Class Council contacted prop companies, event companies and French schools in hopes of selling the tower.
“A few of them were interested but they all ended up either not having enough room, not being able to transport it, thinking it was a fire hazard or just not wanting it,” said Senior Class President Noah Obstfeld (Sr.). “One prop company said they already had two Eiffel Towers of similar sizes.”
According to Mr. Mike Gerakos (Activities Director), all Spirit Week props had to be taken down the Saturday after Spirit Night. Destructing the tower was delayed because the Senior Class Council wanted to sell it. The tower was also deemed a safety hazard.
Others did not believe it was a safety hazard. “We put so much effort into designing it to be basically indestructible,” said Joberto Lee (Sr.). “The design alone took several nights of staying up well past midnight. When we took it down, we pushed the second level off of to crash into the floor, but it didn’t even break.”
Some were just sad to see the tower go. “Seeing our beautiful 27-foot replica go back to pieces of wood was disheartening,” said Mildred Yu (Sr.). “I know how much hard work and planning and building our president and vice presidents went through. The fact that the whole senior class, council and non-council, worked hours on end to build something so wonderful was an amazing thing to witness though. It was great to see our Eiffel Tower stay up so long. You can say it’s an end of an era.”
The tower cost around $1000 to build and several nights to build. Lee donated $1500 to the Senior Class for building the tower as well as other structures during Spirit Week.
All the wood that has been salvaged from the tower has been donated to Habitat for Humanity to help create homes for the homeless.

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