Mermaid Traditions

To be a part of Allard House entails not only creating lifelong friendships and experiencing living in a house filled with more than sixty girls, it also involves sisterly bonds, joy, and working together to create a team. In Allard, there are many traditions that stick with the girls for a very long time. Whether it’s having house dinners, singing or just hanging out in the common room, these traditions allow for a diverse community of personalities to be able to collaborate and connect despite their different backgrounds, cultures, ages and interests. An important tradition in Allard is the Little Big Sister groups. A senior (Grade 11 or 12) is assigned a junior (Grade 9 or 10) whom they will mentor, assist and simply just hang out with. Sisterhood is a strong value in Allard, and it is the foundation of most of the house’s other values.  Another fun tradition is our house song, “Lean on Me”. We sing this song a lot throughout the year, including at the end-of-the-year dinner, when all the girls’ families are there to watch. The lyrics in this song, such as “lean on me, when you’re not strong, and I’ll be your friend, I’ll help you carry on”, resonates with Allard’s ethics of being there for each other and helping to support one another. One more exciting tradition that Allard has is the grade skits before Winter break. Every grade in the house creates a skit that will then be shown to the rest of the house the last night before we go off for break. This tradition allows for the comedic side of our house to shine, and for every girl to participate in this special night, where the whole house gets to bond. All of the houses have unique themes and principles, but the interesting part about Allard traditions is how we always manage to incorporate our house mascot, which is a mermaid, into each tradition. If you ever enter the house, you will instantly notice paintings of mermaids, the ocean, or anything else sea-related in front of you. Having this distinct quality in our house defines us as very different from any other house on campus. After all, once a mermaid, always a mermaid.  Ameera E, Allard ‘19