In the past, the week leading up to the Winterfest has been defined by the same, comforting traditions.
This year, however, marketing teacher Kristi O’Brien, who has been in charge of Winterfest for the past seven or eight years, along with the Student Council, has developed unique ways to incorporate proud traditions and community involvement to ensure that the festivities leading up to the dance are memorable and lively.
“We just want students to have more of a say in the music we are playing—obviously, there are certain restrictions that we need to follow. If there is music that people want to hear, we want to make sure we are playing it.”
— Kristin O'Brien
“At this point, we already have the structure,” O’Brien said. “I’ve got the general week laid out, but as far as the planning, we started back in December, and I started getting some plans together. As far as really getting the Student Council involved, this year we are trying to do a few extra committees so people can be more involved with picking the music for the dance or coming up with the Ranger Challenge for the assembly.”
To maintain organization and accountability, the Student Council has been divided into numerous sections, including different committee-like structures that are in charge of different aspects of Winterfest preparation.
For example, senior Josie Crosse, who is currently the vice president of the senior class, is on the recruitment committee; her job entails raising awareness about the different activities that are unfolding during the week, striving to include more students, and promoting school-wide participation. Additionally, senior Keaton Michalski, the current secretary of the Student Council, is in charge of organizing the music that students requested and compiling it into a playlist.
“Me, [freshman] Joe Emmerson, and [senior] Hayden Bolter, [are] basically going to get the [songs] that students have submitted through the Google form, and we are going to compile it into a playlist and take out songs that might be not good for a dance or inappropriate in a way,” Keaton said.
In the past, there has been critical feedback and strong reactions regarding the music selection for the school dances, and O’Brien commented that the idea of students submitting their own song requests worked well in the past and that they are going to try this method again. A Google form was sent out to students recently, allowing them to submit one song request along with a link to a music video or lyrics for that specific song.
“We just want students to have more of a say in the music we are playing—obviously, there are certain restrictions that we need to follow,” O’Brien said. “If there is music that people want to hear, we want to make sure we are playing it.”
Like the other spirit weeks leading up to school dances, the Student Council has constructed a set of dress-up days as well as fun daily activities to incorporate the whole school.
Monday is Pajama Day, Tuesday is Tacky Tourist Day, Wednesday is Groutfit Day, Thursday is Throwback Thursday (new millennium/the early 2000s), and Friday is Green and White Spirit Day. Some of the themes have been implemented in the past as part of dress-up days, but new themes have been invented by the Student Council to avoid the monotony of continuously repeating old ideas.
Because of the changes being made—including all the different activities and assembly changes—it took more than the Student Council and O’Brien to ensure that the planning and execution of Winterfest week is as flawless as possible.
“There is a teacher that represents each class, so they’re very involved,” Josie said. “I think for Student Council—making posters, coming up with the dress days, and what we are going to do at the assemblies—is kind of a big job.”
Because Homecoming and Prom are large events that require extensive experience and awareness for the work that goes into planning a dance, Winterfest is primarily planned by the underclassmen, allowing them to plan a smaller dance with the guidance of upperclassmen who have been exposed to this type of planning before. This year, underclassmen—along with being involved with the various planning committees—are in charge of decorations for the actual dance in the gym.
“I know that the freshmen and the younger classes mostly do Winterfest, and basically the upperclassmen—like the junior and seniors—can help out,” Josie said. “It’s just a good chance for [underclassmen] to kind of get a feel for [planning].”
This year, the Student Council is going above and beyond with the activities sprinkled throughout the week and the assembly the day before the dance, which will start at 8 p.m. and last two hours on Feb. 10. The activities that have been kept the same and repeated from past Winterfest weeks include Macho volleyball, window painting in the gym lobby, and the assembly on the Friday before the dance.
The Macho volleyball tournament, however, will be held during an assembly on Monday instead of during the night. Wednesday’s activity combines both students and the surrounding community in an event called We Care Wednesday: students are going to be making Valentines for veterans or retirement homes and decorating bags for Kids Food Basket, emphasizing an element of giving back to the community. Thursday, instead of an ice sculpture competition due to the lack of snow, there will be a hallway decoration activity that will be open for all interested students to attend.
“We have the assembly stuff—we are trying to do different things with the court announcement this year, and we are trying to do new ideas with the assemblies,” Keaton said.
Once the court is selected, the Friday assembly the day before the dance will have potential activities such as rock paper scissors battles or something involving bubble balls. The Student Council is still generating unique ideas that haven’t been used in the past to rejuvenate the spirit of Winterfest Week. Considering that plans are still tentative for a few of the activities, official updates for the week are being uploaded at https://sites.google.com/fhps.net/fhcwinterfest.
Overall, months of planning, framing, and dedication have been put into constructing a memorable experience for the students. Amid difficult classes and winter blues, Winterfest is an opportunity to set the stress aside and reconnect with classmates in a fun, unique manner.
“Get involved. Have fun. It’s just another week to look outside of what is going on in your classroom and try to have fun with your classmates,” O’Brien said.
