Planning began in January. With an ASB team of 25 people, the Spring Fling underclassman dance seemed set for success. Decorations were purchased, food was ordered, every detail perfected. But when the doors opened, only 37 sophomores and 118 freshmen showed up.
Sophomore class president Olivia Stevens said there seemed to be a stigma around the Spring Fling, in comparison to other school dances.
“Because it’s sophomores and freshmen, there’s this idea that the sophomores don’t want to be with the freshmen, and ASB doesn’t know how to improve that,” Stevens said.
This contributed to the low attendance, especially among the sophomore class.
“There’s definitely a lot less participation, compared to how many tickets were sold for Winter Ball and Homecoming,” Stevens said.
Last year, ASB put on the first Spring Fling dance, with the committee being led by junior Colin Amen. Although Amen led the ASB committee, the Parents Club and Principal Dr. Yoshihara played a major role in making this dance possible.
“Parents Club had originally scheduled the dance for November of 2024, but ASB wasn’t at the time prepared for that,” Amen said. “I had a meeting with the parent representatives and communicated with them and Dr. Yoshihara pushed it back to the spring.”
Amen said Parents Club played a vital role in executing the dance, by providing funding and support to ASB.
“They were generous enough to pay for one of our food trucks at the dance, which really helped us kickstart the event,” Amen said.
Sophomores said that last year’s Spring Fling influenced whether they would attend this year.
“I think a lot of sophomores didn’t attend because it is seen as a less important event compared to homecoming, and not many people had a good time last year,” sophomore Cassidy Carter said. “I’m sure peer pressure also contributed to that, but for the most part it was that people didn’t feel the need to go.”
In addition, some students said publicity would have helped increase turnout, as well as specializing aspects such as music or decorations to set it apart from other dances. In response to the feedback, this year ASB switched up food choices and games.
“We got Rico Rico and Menchies Frozen Yogurt, and tried to make it less of a dance focus and more games and activities,” Stevens said.
Despite changes, students said the event still felt similar to last year.
“Compared to Homecoming, it was pretty similar, the music and song choices I feel is what dragged down Homecoming and Spring Fling,” Nealon said.
Students said that they wished there was more publicity done by ASB so that more people would come.
“ASB could’ve done a better job hyping it up, since most of my friends that I talked to last year didn’t really enjoy it and saw it as a less important event compared to homecoming,” Carter said.
ASB members also said that using social media to their advantage could have improved attendance this year.
“More awareness and communicating with the underclassmen, posting more on Instagram, and making more posters around campus could have helped,” sophomore ASB member Orion Sachs said.
Although attendance was low, students said they had a good time at the event, especially freshmen.
“The event was actually tons of fun,” freshman Olivia Nealon said, “I really enjoyed the games there and the food. It was fun to hang out with people I don’t normally hang out with.”
After incorporating changes and spending hours setting up activities and games for the dance, ASB members said they were frustrated to see their hard work go to waste.
“I set up carnival games, and it took hours so it was really disappointing to see people not show up because of all the work that went into setting everything up,” Sachs said. “It frustrated me because it feels like when ASB puts effort into giving opportunities it should spark more excitement and engagement, but it ended up doing the opposite and it came out to be a joke.”
Amen said the Parents Club still offered support for the dance this year, but ASB was much more on its own as they already had a vision and plan of what to do, taking into account how last year went.
“We wanted it to be a continual spring event that could be modified by whoever the underclassmen reps were that year,” Amen said.
This year, the main goal was to create a social event for students to have fun and connect more with their grades, Stevens said.
“It was less so a dance and more of a get together, so in that sense it worked out well, but we overall just want more student involvement in the event.” Stevens said.
