FARMINGTON -- Students at Eagle Bay Elementary were at school in their very best clothes on Friday.
They walked quietly in the halls and sat politely and paid attention during a morning assembly. Although students at this school have a reputation of being polite with good assembly manners, they were even more attentive while dressed in their finest attire.
The student council chose to have "Dress Your Best" Spirit Day because of the suggestion of fifth-grade student Baylee Butler, who wrote about wanting to have everyone feel good about themselves.
"She brought me a letter -- it was very impressive," said Principal Julie Peters. "She said when she is dressed up she feels good and wanted to have everyone at school dress up on Spirit Day."
When asked how she came up with the idea, Baylee said, "I just thought about it and decided to write a paper about it. It feels special to come to school in a dress."
Baylee's teacher, Trish Packer, said her students were writing special papers.
"We were trying to work on persuasive writing. They were to write about something near and dear to their heart," Packer said.
Baylee's letter appealed to her principal's emotions.
"When I read it, it touched my heart. I thought it would be great to do a day for Baylee, so I took the letter to the student council," said Peters.
Spirit Day is held once a month at the school and usually the student council chooses to do something, such as having crazy hair day. Most of the time the students and teachers wear jeans and T-shirts on Spirit Day. But this day was different.
The only day teachers get to wear jeans to school is on Spirit Day, but this day they also gave up their jeans to dress up.
Most of the male teachers and many of the boys wore shirts and ties, some even in suits. The women teachers and the female students were in dresses or skirts, and some of the students wore high heels.
"I've seen smiles on lots of faces today," said Packer.
Baylee said she thought crazy hair day was fun but said, "I like this day better."
Student council adviser Pat Lowe explained that the student council knew this month's character skill was "Patience," so they needed to find something they could do that related to the theme.
"They were dreading this as a student council, so they were brainstorming when they got the letter," Lowe said.
Dress Your Best didn't seem like a good idea to some of the boys who like to play basketball at recess, but Lowe reminded them that they needed to have patience and wait to play basketball after they got home and changed to play clothes.
"She hasn't stopped talking about this," said Robin Butler of her daughter, who got her clothes ready the day before so she would be prepared.
"It is a good feeling," Baylee said of seeing everyone dressed so nicely. "It is good. Actually, it is perfect."
Packer said she was waiting to see if the students' classroom behavior was different.
As students went quietly through the halls to the assembly, Baylee walked up to a couple of her former teachers to hug them.
"She just wants every student at Eagle Bay to feel special," said Peters.
And they did.
Sixth-grade students Ross Richards and Andrew Hacking sat together during the assembly.
"I think it's real exciting to wear Sunday clothes to school. It is for me, since I just got a new suit. I like having nice clothes on at school," Ross said.
And Andrew, dressed in a blue vest and bow tie over a white shirt, agreed with his friend. "I'm much calmer. Usually I'm really wild," he joked.
"It is amazing how one person can make a difference," said Lowe.
And Peters said to Baylee, "You've done an amazing thing. There are about 700 students in this school, so you have had a lot of influence."
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