Express Spirit Week, March 11-15, 2024

Express Spirit Week, March 11-15, 2024
Posted on 03/01/2024
Express Spirit Week, March 11-15, 2024

#ExpressStrong Week | March 11-15, 2024

Attention all students, staff and faculty – show off your District spirit! Throughout #ExpressStrong week, scheduled for March 11-15, 2024, wear Elmira Express colors, apparel and swag as a way to celebrate our strength as a District! Remember to take photos! Let’s #GoExpress

About #ExpressStrong Week

This year, throughout #ExpressStrong week scheduled for March 11-15, 2024, the District is once again encouraging students and staff to wear Elmira Express colors, apparel and swag as a way to commemorate our strength as a District.

Four years ago, on March 16, 2020 at the mark of the COVID-19 pandemic, we said good-bye to our students and our classrooms not knowing the next time we’d be reconnected. We re-imagined and transformed education to meet the needs and health concerns around the Novel Coronavirus. We were Express Strong. And with ‘an attitude of fortitude,’ we continued to show our strength as a community amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a tribute to our Express strength, the District launched the first annual #ExpressStrong #StayingStrong District-spirit week in March of 2021. Through special projects and lesson planning, our schools and classrooms highlighted our District values of dynamic and innovative instruction and leadership, college- and career-readiness, academic excellence, social and emotional health and strong community partnerships. The week celebrated the collective effort and countless contributions made across the District to maintain strong student engagement and community connection.

The Elmira Express

The Express: Ernie DavisWe are the "Elmira Express," a special identity inspired by Elmira-native, Ernie Davis. A 1959 graduate of the Elmira City School District, Davis was a High School All-American in football and basketball and he won 11 letters at Elmira Free Academy. He led Elmira (N.Y.) Free Academy to a 52-game winning streak in basketball and as a Syracuse sophomore helped the Orangemen gain their only national football championship.

As a college senior in 1961, he became the first African-American to receive the Heisman Trophy and was the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft. And then, stunningly, he was gone. Struck down by leukemia, Davis never realized his dream of playing in the NFL.

Though he starred in basketball, baseball, and football at Elmira Free Academy, Ernie approached every day as a team player, a valuable lesson we teach our Elmira youth every day.