Thanks to the tireless efforts of our student council, this year’s homecoming dance promises to be an ‘Out of this World’ experience. Get ready to blast off to a space-themed soirée in the high school gymnasium on September 29th from 7-10 pm. Due to the council’s astounding teamwork, there will definitely be some standouts at this year’s dance compared to years past.
“I’m excited about the theme!” said Student Council adviser, Michelle Dorazio. “As an astronomy teacher, I’m pretty pumped to be doing space-themed things!”
The planning process for the dance began back in spring when the theme was chosen. The space theme was recommended by a student and stood out to all the students. Everyone quickly jumped on board and started brainstorming.
“Vincent Mastrorocco came up with the theme, and then we voted on it,” explained Dorazio. “There were a few other themes that some other students wanted, but once it was voted on, it was accepted overwhelmingly by everyone.”
Upon the approval of the theme, everyone started working together almost immediately by breaking off into different committees and figuring out not only how they could pull off such an interesting, intricate theme but also how to do it inexpensively in hopes of keeping ticket prices down.
“I felt like it would be easy and cost-effective to do,” explained Mastrorocco. “It’s already dark in there, so it’s easy to do a space-themed decoration. It’s going to be very visually appealing.”
Due to the student council’s intention of keeping ticket prices as low as possible, they started thinking outside the box and how they could make everything by hand, rather than spending unnecessary money on ordering decorations like in previous years.
“Basically, you just crumble up some paper, and it looks like a bunch of rocks, and cut out a bunch of stars,” Mastrorocco explained about the decorating process.
Each group of students is working very hard on different tasks to make the dance safe and aesthetically pleasing while keeping the budget in mind.
“We had to figure out what we were allowed to use and how to go about getting those,” stated Dorazio. “As for the budget, we looked at what we made last year, estimated ticket sales, and how much prices have increased,” she expanded. “We then determined how much we should charge for tickets.”
Mastrorocco has been working very hard alongside student council president Cassie Byers to organize and assist her in all the complicated aspects of planning and decorating a dance of this scale. The two are ensuring a unique, memorable night for their classmates. They’ve shown amazing teamwork and have taken suggestions from everyone involved.
“It’s fun, but it’s stressful,” stated Byers. “I’ve never had to plan something like this before, but I enjoy working with everyone here. Everyone is super helpful and makes it very easy to plan such a big event.”
The students have been having a great time planning this dance and working together to ensure they get the best results possible. There are so many aspects to planning a dance, including hiring a DJ, ordering food, finding security guards as well as chaperones, and decorating, all while staying within the budget.
“It’s going to be so much fun!” expressed Dorazio.
