In the past, Manitou Springs High School has hosted winter formal dances, but this year will be the first Snowball Dance. The Snowball Dance is an opportunity for students to come together after winter break, and for student council to fundraise for a good cause. The dance was originally scheduled to take place on Saturday, Jan. 25 from 7pm to 10pm in the Old Gym, but it had to be rescheduled to Feb. 22 due to the weather.
The Snowball Dance will benefit the Make A Wish Foundation, as the money spent on tickets will help the organization grant wishes for kids that are critically ill. The child that Student Council is currently sponsoring is Berkley. Berkley is 4 years old and has had 4 open heart surgeries.
Ingrid Perez, an advisor for the student council, feels that the Snowball Dance needs StuCo’s full attention and everything has to go accordingly.
“Usually this type of event takes a lot of planning and preparation,” Perez said. “This means that the student council needs to use class time to plan for every detail related to decorations, music, advertisement and concessions.”
There have been fewer students attending the winter dance over the last few years, and Perez speculates that this could be the result of post holiday budgeting.
“I think the main reason why there are less people coming to any type of dance in the winter is because families have spent a lot of money during the holidays,” Perez said. “Deciding to be part of an event is not just showing up, it also means spending money on clothes, shoes, makeup, hairdo, maybe dinner, entrance fee, concessions, and it could take a toll on some of the families.”
Eve Trahey (12) a planner for the event and StuCo member, hopes students will come out for the dance.
“This is a time of the year where a lot of students are burnt out,” Trahey said. “I think we should just remind kids that it’s good to get out and do things with your friends if you’re feeling like this.”
Due to this problem, Perez thought of some solutions. “Taking things into consideration, the student council has decided to charge less money for the entrance fee than we usually charge for Homecoming,” Perez said. “Something that could be helpful is we could have a financial aid budget from admin for students that would like to attend the dance but financially speaking, are not able to.”
Perez hopes to help students get the opportunity to have fun and relax at the dance.
“It’s always exciting to have the opportunity to plan a fun event for the student body,” Perez said. “Students go through a lot during the school year, some of them go through hard times at home, so they deserve to have a chance to enjoy themselves and to have fun.”
