On March 29, 191 students gathered in the Student Center for games, music, and awkward dancing.
For the past few years, ASB has been wanting to do something about lack of activities for underclassmen in the spring along with vocal concerns from parents and some students, said ASB President Friedie Schickedanz. The idea behind the event was to give the freshmen and sophomores an opportunity to get together and socialize in the spring.
“There’s kinda a drought between Homecoming and Day on the Green,” Schickedanz said, “And this year in particular, there was good motivation for some sort of dance or fun event.”
After some confusion with who was planning the event, between ASB and the Parent’s Club, the two organizations agreed that ASB would help plan an underclassmen event, and other grade-wide activities. However, Schickedanz said ASB’s motivation faded as the first semester went on and they planned and put on other events like rallies and spirit weeks. But as the second semester started, ASB as a class agreed to put on the event for the underclassmen.
“We really wanted to make sure it was different from Winter Ball, but also fun. That’s why we brought in food trucks and games, combined with dancing,” Schickedanz said, “We wanted to restore the on-campus-energy that used to exist.”
Schickedanz said Homecoming used to happen in the student center, so that’s where they wanted Spring Fling to be.
“I think it was exciting. It was nice that it was only two grade levels, smaller so it was less crowded,” said freshman Stella Joseph.
The quad had multiple food trucks, lawn games, a photo station, and Mr. Wolbert even DJed the event.
“I liked that there were games, like ping pong and shaved ice, I really liked that,” said freshman Kyla Willams.
Despite ASB’s planning, there was a lack of motivation for several students in attending, and some didn’t know much about what the event would be like.
“I didn’t think any of my friends were going, and I’ve never really enjoyed school dances,” said sophomore Charlie Plimier. “I knew about the dance vaguely but we never really talked about it and I wasn’t super interested in it.”
Despite being meant for both freshmen and sophomores, more freshmen attended the event.
“I think the idea was worth it, it was really exciting to get ready and go. But I think not a lot of sophomores went, it was more of a freshman dance,” Joseph said.
As much as ASB can put on the events, the energy students bring to this is what they get out of it, Shickedanz said.
“Participation is honestly always an issue, so for a brand new event we were really happy with the turn out,” Schickedanz said. “Getting people to these is really important to us but it also comes with word of mouth, being there, having it year after year, trying it and getting better. I think people didn’t really know what was gonna happen but had a fun time.”
Some underclassmen said the reason they weren’t as motivated to attend could have been due to the lack of school-wide spirit leading up to it.
“The main difference with the hype and everything, was that there was no spirit week beforehand. So no one was really talking about it like HOCO, where everyone was talking about it,” Joseph said.
More so than a dance, it was more of a hang out type event, Williams said.
“There wasn’t anything bad about that, I just think if it were more like a dance, it would have been a lot more different,” Williams said.
ASB’s hope is that as the years go on, Spring Fling will grow and work out the bumps in the road that come along with establishing a new tradition.
“I think dances that are fun and with being on campus, restarting traditions centered on spending time together as a grade, specifically bonding with the grades one year above and below you, can help at a younger level.” Schickedanz said. “I think it’s important to encourage more school spirit and community in the upcoming years. It’s gotta start somewhere.”
