Title: Paper Plate Award

General Information about Item:

• Material: Tradition, inside-joke

• English

• Country where Item is from: USA

Informant Data:

Name: Anna Staropoli

Anna F. Staropoli was born in 1997 in Hackettstown, New Jersey. She skated for the first time with her Girl Scout troop in fifth grade. She actually started skating, (testing and competing), her sophomore year of high school. She is the only member of her family who is a figure skater. She is currently one of the DSFC’s social chairs. Outside of figure skating, she likes to do a lot of writing. On campus, she is an English major and writes for the Dartmouth Mirror

Contextual Data:

• Social Context/ Cultural Context: Every year, each member on the team shiens on and off the ice, establishing themselves as crucial pieces of the team. At the end of the year, during Team Banquet, the captains have a tradition where they hand  out paper plate “awards”  decorated with unique descriptors that embody the specific skater’s characterstics or behavior. Examples usually fall in the format: “Most likely to” followed by some funny or cute action.
• This piece of folklore was collected during an interview about DFSC with Anna at Dartmouth College’s Baker Lobby.

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Associated audio file:

Transcript of Interview

Anna: “There’s … speeches that the captains give, like where they give everyone paper-plate awards, like sayings, like a funny thing that each person on the team is known for.”

Interviewer: “So It’s kind of like multiple inside jokes.”‘

Anna: “Yes… so mine was something about a pun, um there’s a girl on our team Grace, whose was some like like ‘Most Likely to become a Disney Princess’ “

Informant’s Comments: “It’s really to poke fun at all the stuff we’ve done as a team during the year.”

Collector’s Comments: The “Paper-Plate” award, is a tradition specific to the DFSC. At the same time, it is also a physical representation of an inside joke that team members make. The humor is intended to bring a smile and laugh to members and to reaffirm memories that the team had together.

Collectors: John Gilmore

Tags/Keywords:

Paper Plate, Anna Staropoli, Banquet.