On Friday, Oct. 20, KO hosted the annual Homecoming dance in front of Alumni Hall with some major changes from last year. The dance lasted from 7:00 p.m to 10:00 p.m. on the Friday a week before Hewett Day this year instead of on Saturday.
Traditionally, it was hosted on Hewett Day. However, reunions were also being hosted during this year’s Hewett Day. “We can’t have a dance and have reunions at the same time,” Student Government Advisor Carolyn McKee said. “So it’s the week before the idea that it kind of opens up, starts that spirit week and then ends with Hewett Day. But because this year, all the teams were away on Saturday.”
Another change made this year was that students could only pay an entrance fee of $10 directly at the dance. This is different from last year, where students had the option of either paying $10 during the advisory period or $12 directly at the dance.
Senior Speaker Nicolas Tippner noted how this made payment easier for students, as making payments during the advisory period could cause a bit of confusion. He noted how it took time to find people’s names, and that a flat entrance fee made things quicker and easier for everybody.
The theme of this year’s dance was “GlowKO.” Students were provided with glow sticks to wear and light up batons. Along with that, lights and various decorations were put up all around the area in order to brighten the nighttime setting. The DJ from the same company last year played a myriad of songs for the students.
In addition, the dance this year was hosted outside rather than inside a tent or a cafeteria. One challenge this presented was that it was rather chilly outside without a tent or heaters. Due to budgeting restraints, a tent was not rented this year and homecoming was moved outside.
“I think that whole idea about whether it continues outside is something that we need to keep on talking about,” Ms. McKee said. Whether or not the dance would be better hosted outside is largely dependent on the weather.
In the future, Student Government hopes to work on the coordination of the date of the dance. “We should also coordinate better with the athletic schedules because I think it’s hard to have a dance on a Friday night after the school day,” Ms. McKee said. All of the sports teams having away competitions makes it difficult for students to make it to Homecoming on time.
Overall, this year’s homecoming dance went well. Around 250 students attended the dance. The theme fit the dark setting of the outdoors as well, and there was a nice and exciting atmosphere. We can’t wait to have it again next year!
MCKEE: SGA had only one meeting prior to Homecoming, so a lot of work was done before, during and after the meeting to make it happen. Having the dance outside makes decorating a bit easier. And without the work of Buildings and Grounds, specifically Roy DeMoura, who hung all of the outdoor lights, it would never been as festive as it was! We were able to order the neon theme decorations from Amazon.
NICK: Organizing Homecoming went really well and the event was a huge success! Planning Homecoming was the main priority at our first SGA meeting with all of our newly elected members. We met and discussed the themes, decorations, price, music, and more. The most important decision was the theme as we would need to buy decorations and then let the student body know of our decision. We had a few options, but after a few rounds of voting, we decided on the theme, GlowKO. We then worked on the decorations, the price, the social media posts, and the posters we would put up around campus. This was a group effort and everyone on SGA did an amazing part with the planning and the setup a few hours before Homecoming started. I want to give a huge shout-out to the grounds crew who put up the lights. They did a fantastic job and Homecoming would not have been the same if not for the many hours they put into setting them up. Overall I think the night went really well, we had around 270 students attend and it was great to see everyone have an amazing time!
