Every February, the Student Council hosts another school dance in honor of Valentine’s Day. The theme of the dance typically has something to do with love. This year, the dance is called “Sweetheart”, and will take place in the gym on Feb. 19, 8-11 p.m.. 

StuCo puts a lot of effort into planning dances, including deciding a theme, promoting the dance, selling tickets, and setting up the dance itself on the night of. 

Months of planning go into these dances, according to junior StuCo member Emma Wheeler. 

“We start pregaming it like two months in advance,” Wheeler said. “Then we really start making the stuff to hang around the school like a week before the dance, maybe two weeks.” 

Understandable at that, considering the amount of work that goes into putting a dance together. The decorations alone could take days to prepare and finish setting up, which StuCo President senior Abbie Clements considers the hardest part of putting a dance together. 

“There’s just so many different things you have to decorate,” Clements said. “We have to get people together to set it up, and then we have to get everything in, and then plan and create all the decorations so we can put them all up, [while] coordinating all the other people that are coming in, like the DJ and the photo booth we’re going to have.”

Of course, they can’t start the decorations before they have a theme planned to base them off of. The first thing they have to talk about is what the theme is going to be, which can be difficult with such a large group. 

“We like to hear everyone’s ideas in the group and just collaborate off each other,” StuCo member senior Zach Foster said. “We usually all agree and come to consensus on an idea.” 

The StuCo members have gotten pretty good at collaborating and making decisions with maturity. They don’t need too much guidance or instructions from the advisors, Ms. Lauren Hannon and Ms. Bailey Hightower, both English teachers and student council advisors. 

“I would say it’s 90% student council led and 10% me and Ms. Hightower led,” Hannon said. “We do not have any input on their creativity. We are just there for management purposes.” 

In the end, the StuCo members are happy to see their work come to life and see the student body having fun. 

“[My favorite part is] getting to put all the decorations up and seeing all our hard work come together.” StuCo Vice President sophomore Grayson Yoder said.” 

The turnout is expected to be greater than previous years due to just getting back from COVID and finally being able to truly participate in school functions without too much worry. So put on your party pants (or dresses) and dance the night away under the neon lights brought to you by the Student Council. 

 “It’s really cool seeing the vision come to life.” Hannon said.