Michigan School Officials Sing Snow Day ‘Hallelujah’ To Announce Closure During Record Breaking Lows
It’s no secret. In the U.S. midwest, it’s cold — life-threateningly cold. Because the polar vortex collapsed and sent arctic air rushing down into the lower 48, many schools in the region have canceled school due to snow and frigid temperatures.
For the Swartz Creek, Michigan, school district, superintendent Ben Mainka and high school principal Jim Kitchen created a video announcement to let everybody know that students would miss school due to an often wished-for snow day. During the video, per YouTube, the school officials vowed not to embarrass themselves by making a wacky video complete with a made-up song to release the happy news, which Mainka referred to as an “epidemic.”
As they talked, a piano began to play the familiar chords of the song “Hallelujah,” which was originally written and recorded by Canadian singer Leonard Cohen. These two men came up with their own unique snow day lyrics — and recorded a version to officially announce that their school was closed due to inclement weather conditions.
Until they began to sing, the video seemed like many of the other fun videos that school officials have made in recent years to impart news items to their student bodies. However, this video differs because of the two men’s astonishing voices and harmonies.
@KyleeMiller_WX @C_Burkhart @McLeodReports @WXHaleigh910 @elisedwx @CandaceM_wx @adrienne_wx @GarofaloWX @EmilyRoehler @StephanieAbrams @TWCAlexWilson @SarahDillingham @Ginger_Zee @WNEMTV5news Heavy snow in Swartz Creek, Michigan pic.twitter.com/BQ3wRL5lav
— Brian Weaver (@bweav1990) January 28, 2019
Indeed, these creative and talented guys did not end up making “fools” of themselves — or humiliating themselves — with their “Hallelujah” snow day song. Their song’s chorus goes, “It’s a snow day. A winter cold day. Stay home and just play. It’s a great family day.” In one of the tongue-in-cheek verses, the high school principal implored his students to bring cookies, promising that he’d try to talk the superintendent into a second snow day on Wednesday.
Not surprisingly, the video quickly went viral — with many people commenting on how amazing they managed to sound in the simple video. One commenter suggested that these two go on the reality TV show America’s Got Talent. So far, on YouTube, the creative clip has over 235,000 views and climbing. Plus, it’s been shared across social media outlets, including both Facebook and Twitter.
At the end of the video, the duo apologized for their “out of body experience” — and then formally told the district’s families that school was canceled. Perhaps parents of the children who had to stay home today were most happy about the song’s instructions, which suggested that students “help your parents.” These school officials certainly upped the bar for snow day videos.
