The high school kicked off Winterfest celebrations on Feb. 9 at a pepfest in the gym where the dress up days and royalty candidates were announced. The pepfest was hosted by Student Council President Senior Jaylee Waters and Treasurer Junior Nevaeh Wacholz.
Each grade receives six total representatives. For eighth grade, the royalty court consisted of Lilly Elmer, Jayda Bryand, Maidan Ila Bolinger, Ethan Brownlee, Knight Devin Friehl and Jace Katzenmeyer.
The freshman representatives were Lady Evalyn Holcomb, Angela Buansombat, Morgan Goskeson, Brecken Wacholz, Drake Sternhagen and Lord Kuol Dual.
Sophomore representatives were Kae Bee, Duchess Nina Zhang, Hanna Austinson, Duke Chase Schmidt, Erik Boley and Gach Bor.
Junior representatives consisted of Nevaeh Wacholz, Princess Evie Dawson, Mika Cichosz, Bryant Johnston, Mason Attig and Prince Liam Ball.
The Senior representatives were Ava Attig, Queen Hannah Veldman, Rachel Doppelhammer, Connor May, Treydon and King Trenton Mikels.
Student Council Vice President Alexia Conley explained how the student council came to the new idea of having a skate instead of a dance and why they sent out a survey this year to see which path students were going to take.
“In past years, we haven’t had really good experiences with the dances we had,” said Conley.” We’ve had less than 50% [of students] showing up.”
Due to the survey results, a dance for the eighth and ninth graders was planned but was almost canceled with only 15 under-classmen signed up just two days before the dance. The dance was still put on, on February 17 with 60 students attending. According to the survey, the student body voted for the upperclassmen to have a skate instead of a dance, as prom is coming up in just under two months and attendance is usually low at the Winterfest dance. The skate took place at the local arena on the same night as the underclassmen dance. The skate had low attendance with approximately 20 people in attendance. Usually, the Winterfest court is crowned during the dance. Due to the complications of attendance for the underclassmen’s dance and upperclassmen having a skate, they crowned royalty on Feb. 16 during the school’s daily news program, Tiger Vision.
To continue the week, the school celebrated with dress up days. Monday was Pajama Day, Tuesday was Emo vs VSCO Day, Wednesday was We Wear Pink Day, Thursday was Dress Your Best, and lastly, Friday was USA Day. Dress up days continue to be a success with students and gradually increase the excitement towards the final week’s events.
Wacholz said, “It just brings a lot of school spirit and allows for people to come together walking through the halls seeing everyone dressed-up.”
Due to the behaviors of the student body and the unwillingness to participate within school-sanctioned activities, this year field days have come to an end. Many students are seen leaving from field days and pepfests early, however, the student council strongly believes in continuing pepfests.
Conley said, “It’s important to still get the school spirit going and to have the school events still be a thing because that’s one of our main things that we do. A lot of kids try to leave but it’s one of our main things for getting information out about spirit weeks.”
This year’s Winterfest celebration had some additional changes. In addition to the skating and crowning, it was the first year that students had the ability to remove their names from the royalty voting form.
“There may be some students that aren’t comfortable being put in that position, or maybe wouldn’t want that,” Walcholz said. “So, for them to have the opportunity to take their names [off the list], they can’t be voted onto the court.”
Throughout the entire week, the student council sold hot chocolate before school for three dollars or at two if students brought their own mug. Freshmen Audrey Gustafson, Evelyn Koepke, and Keisha Navarrete ran the stand for the majority of the week.
“It actually was successful, a lot of kids came to buy hot chocolate and raise some money,” Koepke said.