MATTAPOISETT — A spin on “Elf on the Shelf” closed out school in 2024 at Old Rochester Regional High School.

As the day wrapped up before holiday vacation Friday, Dec. 20, Principal Mike Devoll stood on a chair as students applied tape across him. It was “Devoll on the Wall.”

The taping of Devoll to the wall in the main lobby of the high school was the culmination of a fundraiser organized by the executive board of the student council.

The fundraiser, the “Candy Cane Challenge,” was a combined fundraising and school spirit competition, according to senior Emily Wyman, president of the student council.

It had students participate in challenges, like decorating doors or creating gingerbread houses, that encouraged donations toward the Neediest Families Fund, a charity. The school needed to raise $1,500 to earn the opportunity for “Devoll on the Wall.”

Just before taping their principal, Wyman said almost $4,000 had been raised. In the past, typically about $1,000 had been raised each year, but by getting more students involved, the school “really surmounted that in an incredible way,” Wyman said.

Executive board member senior Sienna Roveda said school spirit had been really good in the few weeks during the Candy Cane Challenge.

“It definitely is helping the school atmosphere a lot, so it’s been a really nice time,” Roveda said.

The taping process took about 20 minutes. The members of the class that had raised the most money, more than $500, got to apply the strips of tape to Devoll and the wall, according to Wyman.

Devoll said he couldn’t say no this year to getting taped due to the work the student council had done since the beginning of the school year.

“It was great,” Devoll said. “It seemed like some of the kids had a little too much fun and were a little too happy to see me do that, but I hope they had fun with it too.”

The plan was for the chair Devoll stood on to get pulled out after enough tape was stuck so he would be “floating,” according to senior Elizabeth Houdelette, an executive board member.

“I had a big lunch. You better use extra tape,” Devoll said during the taping, one of many jokes he cracked throughout the process.

Despite the abundance of tape, it didn’t hold, and Principal Devoll returned quickly to the ground once the chair was pulled.