Throughout the years at Lake Stevens High School, our winter dance, or what has been presented as Tolo, has not been able to follow through due to mainly lack of ticket sales and not getting enough traction. Last year the idea of a winter dance was presented but less than 50 tickets were successfully sold so it couldn’t follow through. This has been a growing issue that some have felt should be figured out in the future years of Lake Stevens because there are mixed feelings about whether or not the dance should happen at all.
After sending an anonymous form out to the students at Lake Stevens High School, the majority said yes for a winter dance. While the answers varied between students, it came down to the overall idea that the dance would be a fun experience that would benefit the school financially overall. Here are a few of their responses:
- “Because it’d be fun and probably raise money too.”
- “I think a small winter dance could be fun! Like having fake snow, cold themed, it gets the school ready for the holidays.”
- “More opportunities for students to connect.”
While people said yes a lot of students also said no, here’s why.
- “As much as it’s a nice social event, winter is typically a time when everyone is too busy. With the holidays and finals taking place in winter the thought of having to plan going out to the event we’re typically all stressed around that time. With the raised prices of dance tickets and the dance itself being a little lackluster it doesn’t seem worth the effort to plan and execute a winter dance.”
- “It’s just unneeded and boring to do something cooler than that so much school money going towards something only a few people would go to save that money and put it towards prom.”
After viewing what the majority of the school wanted, sophomores, juniors, and seniors shared their thoughts throughout interviews.
“Whether it’s formal or informal I would go either way, having 3 dances last year at Cavelero was really fun and I’d like to have that again… I think it brings people together and gives everyone something to look forward to in the winter,” sophomore McKenzie Wognild said.
The idea’s and perspectives that sophomores have are also different than what some juniors think when it comes to having a dance.
“It’s a good idea. I think that the way we’ve gone about it in the past definitely could, like, use different formatting. A colorful theme, like, not like neon or anything, but like, I was thinking, like, Rio,” junior Mirasol Chigovanyika said.
While Chigovanyika said some great information, senior Emerson Walker gave an ASB point of view as she is on the senate team this year and was helping with homecoming.
“Because I think it brings people together, and it gives people an excuse to dress up that we don’t really have anymore,” Walker said. “If I don’t get a winter dance, I want other people to have it at least.”
Walker also mentioned other potential benefits of holding a dance include more money for ASB and opportunities for community service hours and fun.
Principal Ivelia had some great feedback, making sure to let students know that she cares for others and their stories.
“We need to be thoughtful. And in that same vein, we’ve talked about making sure that we’re increasing access and decreasing barriers. So of a student population of approximately 2000 to 2200 we want to try and plan an event that meets the needs of as many students as we can,” Ivelia said.
She also mentioned that she is a “Yes, and Principal”.
“It is our job as leaders, yourselves, as student leaders, to look at these things with your building administration and advisors to push on, what is it and why? And then what do we do to get there,” Ivelia said.
Iveila shared that this event can happen if people had the plan and help from the student leaders, and making sure the ASB team was in on it too. The only thing left to think is how can you help with the event?
