Homecoming 2015

At the end of August about a week before school was starting, my vice principal asked if I wanted to be the moderator of Student Government. I thought, why not?

What she failed to tell me was that Homecoming weekend was two weeks away and I had to plan Pep Rally, the Powder Puff game, and the Homecoming dance. Yikes.

Before I could do anything, I needed a student government. So I had to hold elections pretty soon after school started. Luckily, there are only four homerooms in each grade, so over the course of a few days, I had candidates campaign in their classes homerooms giving speeches and making flyers. By the end of week one, I had ballots from each homeroom and student representatives for each class. Whew.

Fortunately, I had a lot of help from the past moderator and a parent helper. I would not have been able to get everything done without them.

Pep Rally

The biggest headache of pep rally was the class t-shirts. The first big decision of the student government was class colors so that we could order t-shirts. Seniors wanted a white-out, so the juniors had to counteract with a black-out. Sophomores I believe chose blue and freshmen settled for green. The t-shirts could also feature a phrase or saying, which led to more arguing and a longer after school meeting for me. Once everything was decided, I got to pass off the details to the parent helper, who created and collected order forms from all the students and laid out the cash to buy and expedite ship all the shirts. I couldn't be more thankful. Of course, random students complained to me about the shirt colors and sayings, even though it wasn't me at all. Note to self here, Schuck: Plan shirts in May-June so we don't have to rush next year.

Then I had to get everything in order for the actual pep rally. I had to find student MC's, a student to be our mascot, the Eagle (pictured above), and volleyball teams. Homecoming pep rally features a volleyball battle between freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. I had to create sign-ups outside my door for players AND coaches, which could only be girls on the volleyball team. I had to find faculty volunteers to referee the game and ask the athletic director for a list of all fall sports athletes to be announced at the rally. I am sorry if I am rambling on about this. I think I am just writing this all down so I remember for next year!

The day of pep rally, I had to take my last period class to the gym and call down the varsity volleyball team to set up. Luckily, the volleyball players knew how to set up the court and score keeping section. Whew. I had to get all the sound equipment together, which was, of course, not all together. The mics were with the Mass stuff from the previous day and the speaker was hidden in the drama club closet. I had a student DJ hook up his iPad with the wireless speaker to get some music as students walked in. The cheerleaders started the rally off with a cheer, we introduced all the teams, and the classes played volleyball. Seniors were victorious. Of course.

Powder Puff Game

That night following pep rally was the girl's Powder Puff game because girls can play football too! I had to have sign-up for those teams and coaches as well, where coaches were boys from the football team. The girls got to play on the football field and the athletic director opened up the food shack, so it was a fun afternoon for students to just hang out at school. I had to find different MCs for this game and yours truly was the referee (pictured above). Two students refereed with me and they were pretty biased to the senior girls. We played a few games of 6-8 minutes each. As you can imagine, senior were victorious yet again. This was probably my favorite part of the whole weekend.

Homecoming Football Game

This wasn't my responsibility! I had a great time at the game cheering on the Eagles (pictured above)!

Homecoming Dance

Note to self: Again, we need to plan for this at the end of last year to cut down on all the rushing around; everything also has to be put in one place so it doesn't get lost/misplaced like this year.

I didn't have a student government to choose a theme yet, so I picked it. It was the "Shut Up and Dance with Me" Homecoming with a neon/80's theme. My parent helper did a great job of finding decorations like tulle, lights, lanterns, and glow sticks. My biggest job was finding a DJ in a pinch. I called a few local companies and told them my dilemma. DJ Joey B in Middletown, NY gave me the best deal at $400 for 3 hours of music and lights. The students thought it was the best DJ in recent years. Success. Thanks, Joey B!

A lot of other parents volunteered to bring snacks/water, chaperon, and help with set-up/clean-up. We worked all afternoon to make our gym look like a hopping club and we were there long after all the students have left. They all have my undying gratitude. There were glow sticks everywhere and the students had fun collecting and wearing them. With all the running around, I forgot to get a picture of all the decor, but it did look something like this:

http://gmp.garymusickproductions.com/bermuda

I wanted to set up a photo area in our courtyard and I thought a life-size Polaroid cut-out would go with the theme. For $10 at Home Depot, I used 3/4 in PVC pipes and connectors to make a standing frame. The guy at Home Depot cut them to size for free, just so you know! The art teacher had some long white banner paper that I glued to the poles and cut out a hole. Now, the Polaroid had to have a back drop, so I took a black sheet I bought at WalMart and had a blast throwing neon paint onto it. With a black light behind it, my photo booth looked great! My wonderful boyfriend helped me a lot during this week and weekend, so he's pictured with the final product (also pictured above).

http://www.weddingbee.com/2010/08/23/build-your-own-photo-booth/

The students had a blast at the dance and I know many took "selfies" in the Polaroid. There are a few photos of students and me in the booth - I need to find them! At the dance, I mainly focused on Homecoming King and Queen voting; I had other faculty check students in and monitor the dance floor. Tickets for the dance were $5, which were sold by my student government members and myself during lunch periods. We made enough to cover all the expenses and we had money left over for new events. Woo hoo! 

I am thinking of a Ms. and Mr. BC pageant to crown a pair of students who truly embody our school and its ideals. I'll let you know how that goes. In the meantime, here's a final picture of me from the end of the Homecoming dance and weekend:

Miss Schuck