With the reintroduction of the Sweetheart Dance, Student Government Philanthropic Chair senior Meghan Churchill said the planning behind a dance involves many aspects people do not consider.
“We are usually given a date based on admin, but by then, we have to find and book the DJ, figure out where in the school we exactly want [the dance to be], figure out decorations, work with different parent committees for food. If we want a photo booth, we have to book that. We have a pre-decorating day for the dance as well,” Churchill said.
In addition, Churchill said the Executive Board of Student Government chooses a theme for the dance. The Board ultimately decided on “Tangled in our Memories” as the theme for Sweetheart this year.
StuGo sponsor Sarah Derks said administration has to approve ideas such as dress-up days for spirit week and carnival games before they are implemented due to controversies in the past.
“Luckily, administration lets us do certain things, but then there are things that if they involve all students in the entire student body, we can’t necessarily please everyone, but we definitely don’t want to offend anyone,” Derks said.
With the carnival being added this year, Churchill said StuGo had to communicate more with the clubs involved to prepare.
“We had to talk a lot more logistics of that, like where each carnival booth was going to be, where we were going to do it, the timing we were going to do because we can’t interfere with the other basketball games, but it ended up working out for the best,” Churchill said. “It’s also a way to give back to the Northwest community as well.”
Churchill said StuGo approached planning for the dance differently this year due to uncertainty about how people would react to bringing the dance back.
“We had seen just a decrease of spirit in our school and we’re like the only way to up that is to create better environments where there is more spirit,” Churchill said. “We are going to be the school that does have a sweetheart dance, we aren’t going to have that reputation of not having a dance anymore.”
To increase spirit, Derks said StuGo opened up the budget for Sweetheart this year to accommodate everything that was needed. In total, Derks said $3,000 was spent on Sweetheart.
Derks said she encourages students, specifically upperclassmen, to come to the dance with an open mind and eliminate the misconception that Sweetheart is only for underclassmen. She said students should take the opportunity to have fun as teenagers at less formal events.
“It’s okay to go and have fun, and you have plenty of time in your life to be serious,” Derks said.
However, she said she is optimistic about the attendance for the dance and the carnival.
“Numbers aren’t necessarily as important as just making sure we’re providing an opportunity for people to come and have a good time and providing something for our students to give back to the community,” Derks said.
