DIXFIELD — Dirigo High School’s annual Winter Carnival will be held at the school this year in order to save money, Student Council adviser Karen Phair said.

The weeklong celebration begins Monday, Feb. 9, and ends Friday, Feb. 13, council adviser and teacher Karen Phair said.

Every year, the Student Council raises money to host several events, including Winter Carnival normally held at Black Mountain in Rumford. There, “students get the chance to see staff out of their environment and vice versa,” she said.

“Typically, the Student Council will raise between $900 and $1,000 through their dances, and we use that money to go to Black Mountain,” Phair said. “This year, when we found out that it would cost $1,300 to go to Black Mountain, we decided to take a year off and hold it at the school.”

Phair said she has only helped organize the Winter Carnival at Dirigo High School one other time, and none of the students at the school have attended a Winter Carnival that “wasn’t held at Black Mountain.”

“It’s going to be quite a change,” Phair said. “To be honest, I’m a little apprehensive about the whole thing, but it’s also kind of exciting. We just finished hammering out the schedule for the carnival, and while there are not as many things as the last time we held it at the school, there’s still plenty of stuff, indoors and outdoors, for the students to do.”

The hockey tournament, an obstacle course, a snowball toss and a nature walk will be outdoors, while board games, art, frozen T-shirt contest and a three-point shootout, will be held indoors.

“There’s going to be a good balance of outdoor and indoor stuff,” Phair said. “It’ll be nice to get some of the students outside, enjoying the weather, especially considering the weather we’ve had lately.”

One unique event is “piloxing,” which Phair described as a mix between pilates and kickboxing.

“There’s not going to be a competition for that,” she said. “It’s just an activity that the students can participate in.”

There will be dress-up days every day of the week, and that each class will have the chance to construct a snow sculpture.

“There’s plenty of snow to go around right now, so the sculptures should be good,” Phair said. “The theme for the sculptures, believe it or not, is ‘summer.’”

She said she hopes to host the Winter Carnival at Black Mountain “every other year.”

“It’s a little disappointing, because it’s a lot of fun at Black Mountain,” Phair said. “However, I think we’re still going to have a lot of fun with the things we’ve set up at the school.”

mdaigle@sunjournal.com