Ever since last school year ended, the student council has been hard at work developing the homecoming theme for this year. 

“At the end of each school year at our last StuCo meeting, we hold . . basically, people volunteer ideas for what they’d like the next years theme to be,” StuCo Sponsor Jani Wilkens said. “This last year, the theme that somebody suggested was ‘Knights Around the World”. We always vote on it the year before.”

As this school year opened, planning for homecoming started almost immediately. Quickly, the StuCo body formed itself into many committees, each one responsible for a different part of the upcoming event. Committees can be in charge of planning a multitude of things from decorations to snacks. 

“There’s a ton of officers and cabinet members that run these ‘committees’, and then all of the members help out on those committees,” Wilkens said.

 The committees do a variety of things during StuCo meetings to help prepare for the dance. Some design and create the spirit week and pep assembly banners, while others are more directly involved in the dance itself. They sketch out design ideas and plan out the room’s layout, making the gym look nice and helping it fit the theme. Many general members, like junior Caleb Kruise, help paint and put finishing touches on homecoming and pep assembly decorations.  

“It’s enjoyable, and it’s very low commitment,” Kruise says. “It gives me something to do after school and I enjoy it.”

 The homecoming dance itself will take place in the large gym near the lower entrance of the school. Using their committees, StuCo already has a game plan for how they’re going to decorate the room this year. 

“Because it’s ‘Around the World’, the ticket to the dance is going to look like a boarding pass,” Wilkens said. “The area that you go through to get to the dance is going to look like an airport, and then, when you actually get to the dance, it’ll look like different countries all around you. There’s, like, an Asia, a Europe.”

The gym will be separated into various sections and each one will be easily distinguished from the other, separated by decorations and activities.

“Each continent will kind of had their own thing,” Cabinet Member Grace Lindstrum said. “Each continent is represented in some way through props, decorations, colors, it’s kind of cool.” 

Everything in the room will have something to do with the Around the World theme. Even the snacks have found a place in this years theme. 

“The snack room is based on Antarctica, and so most of the snacks are going to be based on cold things,” Wilkens said. “Ted Drews is the big thing, it’s our big ticket snack.”

 The music for the dance is also going to be tweaked a bit to match up with the ‘Around the World’ theme.

“[The music] is going to be a mix,” Lindstrum said. “Obviously, there’ll be the classic hits that we always play at the dance, and some of the newer songs. But, since the theme is ‘Knights Around the World’, we’re going to try and incorporate some of the songs from those cultures. They’re still going to have those upbeat, super-low bass kind of rhythms so that everyone can still dance to it.”

Authors note: Homecoming tickets will cost $20. The cost helps pay the bill that the homecoming dance generates and helps support StuCo in future activities such as the International Festival. Guests can attend, but the appropriate form must be filled out and their tickets will cost $25. The homecoming dance will be on Oct. 5. Tickets will not be sold at the door.