On Oct. 14, 2023, Gainesville High School will be hosting its 3rd annual homecoming.
Homecoming is an event all students and staff have come to know and love. Most of the student body reflect on the fun times they had getting dressed up with friends, dancing to the music in the gym and the memories they made. However, many people fail to remember or thank the people who made our homecoming possible: the SALC.
SALC is a student-led class that helps plan and organize events like homecoming, spirit weeks and prom. These students all work together with the help of teachers like Ms. Karnbach and Ms. Campbell to make the events students love possible. So, what happens behind the scenes? How are these events planned? Who are these individuals that the student body looks over?
The first step towards planning these events is the theme; how do they come up with them? Ms. Campbell gave the behind-the-scenes of how much effort went into this process.
“So, we really gave it to them to see what they could confidently do and what is something they feel students would be interested in” Ms. Campbell said.
Ms. Campbell continued to explain how they would narrow down a big list of ideas into four and the importance of student-teacher teamwork was to the creation of homecoming.
“In the SALC class, we’ll present it to our students and then they’ll come up with big ideas and then they’ll let the student population vote on what they want to see” Ms. Campbell said
These ideas were also shared by Madelyn (Maddy) Lis, Junior, and Darya Milligan, Senior.
“So, we take everyone’s ideas and put them together and we create our amazing theme.” Lis said.
“It’s been kind of different to get to know these people and work with these people,” Milligan said, “so it’s really interesting with new people and seeing how they want to contribute to the group and their ideas.”
While the planning process is important to homecoming, the decorations are important as well. With Milligan being the head of the production team and Lis being the head of Aesthetics and Design, decorations were extremely important to both. Milligan and Lis both had many ideas that connected to the “Once Upon a Time” theme of this year’s homecoming and the importance of elevating the theme past the stereotypical ideas that usually come with it.
“We just wanted a timeless event and we also look up inspiration; what have some other schools done, what do we want to do that’ll set up apart from the other schools” Lis said.
“I don’t wanna give it all away, but think candles, flowers, like a dreamy kind of sense” Milligan said.
While coming up with the theme for homecoming and planning out all the details of the event can be a very stressful and hard task, Ms. Campbell, Lis, and Milligan are excited for the event, with Milligan commenting on her favorite part of planning homecoming being the collaboration.
“My favorite part about planning homecoming was, well is currently, is putting everything together” Milligan said.
Milligan also explained how, while she missed the seniors, she enjoyed planning the event with new and old SALC students as well as being able to collaborate with them and seeing all the ideas they came up with.
SALC doesn’t only plan our homecoming though, the group of students and teachers have multiple events planned for the 2023-2024 school year.
“Events wise this year, we’re going to have homecoming, we’re going to have a bunch of big volunteer opportunities and events.” Ms. Campbell said.
Events like Trunk or Treat, prom, and other smaller events are next on SALC’s list with hopefully more to come.
Homecoming is one of the best activities of the year, but while you’re dancing and having fun, make sure to remember and thank the people who made your fun possible.
