On March 29, 191 underclassmen
gathered in the Student Center
for games, music, and awkward
dancing.
ASB President Friedie Schickedanz
said for the past few years, ASB has
been wanting to do something about lack
of activities for underclassmen in the
spring. 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 par-
ticular, 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 start-
ed, 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, com-
bined with dancing,”
Schickedanz said,
“We wanted to restore
the on-campus-energy
that used to exist.”
Schickedanz said
Homecoming used to happen in the stu-
dent 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 English
tearcher Eduardo 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 plan-
ning, there was a lack
of motivation for sever-
al 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 danc-
es,” 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 ener-
gy students bring
to this is what
they get out of it,
Shickedanz said.
“Participation is honestly always an is-
sue, so for a brand new event we were re-
ally happy with the turn out,” Schickedanz
said. “Getting people to these is really im-
portant to us but it also comes with word
of mouth, being there, having it year afteryear, trying it and getting better. I think
people didn’t really know what was gon-
na 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 every-
one 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 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 up-
coming years. It’s gotta start somewhere.”
