by TOMMY PUGH and ERIN CLARK - Student Government members describe the process of putting Homecoming week together.
WESTFIELD, Ind. (Sep. 2019) - Throughout the last week of September, students behaved a little different than usual. Maybe it was the wild outfits, maybe it was the school spirit and pep, or maybe it was the excitement for the dance. Between all of these, Homecoming was a success. Behind all of the fun activities, however, came a significant amount of planning and hard work from the five Homecoming committees within Student Government.
Each committee within Student Government worked on one specific aspect of Homecoming week. For the Parade Committee, the focus was the parade float.
“We came up with the design, so the theme, for the float,” Lydia Mohler (12) said. “So we have to go out and buy the materials for the float, and then we decorate it. For the theme you have to go off of what the theme for Homecoming in general is, then you have to try to relate it to that.”
This year, the Parade Float Committee had to work within the overall parade theme of ‘Sweet Victory.’ To do so, the committee drew inspiration from a well-known candy tycoon.
“I think we’re going to go with a ‘Willy Wonka,’” Mohler said. “We’re using pool noodles as giant lollipops, paper plates as tiny lollipops, maybe a chocolate river? Oh, and a gold something for the golden ticket.”
Shortly after the parade, students took over the football field for the PowderPuff game. Just as with the committee in charge of the parade float, the committee in charge of PowderPuff was tasked with making sure all teams were prepared prior to the big game.
“It’s basically the presidents and a few other people,” freshman class president Charlie Schultz (9) said. “We help plan what days we’re going to meet for our actual coaching practices, and then we also talk about our speeches before we do them to introduce PowderPuff to everybody. It’s not a big committee because it goes by really quickly, and there’s a lot of planning at first but after a while it’s not as big.”
While PowderPuff was a football game, it did not take precedence over the Homecoming game itself. This was partly because of the suspense of finding out who had won the title of Homecoming King and Queen on the night of the Homecoming game, and, no surprise, Student Government had a committee in charge of that too.
“We’ve been counting votes and getting court ready for the game,” Julia Morrison (12) said. “We’ve been ordering the banners and the tiaras and all of that stuff and the flowers to give to the people who are on court. My favorite part is counting the votes because it’s really fun, and you get to see who’s on court early.”
Once the court is announced and the football game ends, Student Government must quickly shift gears to focus on the next activity: the Homecoming dance. Before, the actual dance could take place though, the Dance Committee had to figure out its plan of execution.
“We have to decide on the theme and do all the decorations and all of the logistical things behind the dance, so like the pricing of everything and how to organize check-in and stuff like that,” Anna Kantar (10) said.
While the other committees were tasked with preparing for a specific event, the Spirit and Pep Committee was in charge of spreading awareness about the overall activities of the week.
“Our job is to hype them up so the student body knows about them and they’re excited with them, and to make sure the student body likes them,” Owen Flynn (9) said. “We helped pick the spirit days for Homecoming, so we had a brainstorm day and it was really fun.”
But just because Homecoming appeared to go off without a hitch doesn’t mean there weren’t some challenges along the way.
“One of the most challenging things is that not everyone agrees on the same things, and then student body-wise, not everyone likes the spirit days,” Kantar said. “It can be a challenge to make everyone happy. But in the end it usually turns out great.”
Homecoming was a product of the hours of dedication that Student Government put into making the week memorable, and for those that participated, the effort was worth it.
“It’s a really interesting process, I think, to get to see behind the scenes,” Kantar said. “The event is so fun, but getting to help create something that everyone in our school enjoys is really awesome.”