On the night of September 28th, music blared throughout the Desert Oasis campus. Heels clanked as the students lined up outside for the annual homecoming dance.
From the hours of 7 to 10 p.m., attending students were greeted by security and metal detectors to ensure a safe and fun night for everyone.
Student council advisor Bridget Wright stated, “It was a smooth event, there weren’t any major issues or hiccups from a planning and execution perspective. And then we got tons of really positive feedback from people at the dance, and from teachers that have been here for a really long time.”
Homecoming is one of D.O.’s most important school events, it is a time for students to get together with friends, dance, take pictures, and come onto campus outside of school hours. The event takes months of preparation and hard work from our student council.
“May is when we start talking about theme, and then we start working on décor over the summer. So assume the Council reports back in mid-July, they have to be on campus and as soon as we finish our welcome back posters they immediately start working on homecoming,” commented Wright, “So it’s just very long hours, and people don’t realize that they (STUCO) are here, a good 20 hours extra a week after school for the first 10 weeks of school.”
This year’s theme was Rio which seemed to be popular among the students. In the days following the dance, DOHS hosted a movie night showing the film on Tuesday, then a homecoming assembly on Friday showcasing the dance/theme which included a performance done by the school’s dance team to the song “Hot Wings (I wanna party)” from the Rio soundtrack. Both events had a high attendance rate.
“We had a bunch of student council students like, propose different ideas, and then they have to do a presentation on why they think that their proposal is the best, and then the class votes. So we had 130 people vote on what the theme would be”, explained Mrs. Wright, “ I don’t know why it was Pixar-themed, but. They came up with Rio and it was colorful, bright, and fun.”
The dance’s atmosphere was indeed, colorful, bright, and fun. Decorations were displayed throughout the area from the ceiling to the floor.
“This dance was like such a labor of love. Mr. Hayes, our art teacher, does the National Art Honor Society club, so his club, him, and some student council people made everything. He made the tree that was, over that area where Mr. Dyer was, and then, the flower backdrops, and everything.” added Mrs. Wright, ”we had a parent that volunteered for eight hours on Saturday, the day of the dance, to do the massive balloon arch, where we had Rio 24. it took eight hours to do that balloon arch and 2000 balloons. So we started blowing up balloons on Friday, and then we got every balloon blown up.”
A new addition to the event was the juice bar. Although this station had been implemented in last year’s Sadie’s dance it has never been seen at a Desert Oasis homecoming dance. History teacher and football coach Eric Dyer volunteered to help out with the station.
“It was busy. A lot of drinks were made, but it was fun overall,” Mr. Dyer shared,” I think it was a good vibe, and everybody was happy with what they got, and the drinks were pretty good too. I think since me being here this was probably one of our best homecomings.”
This year’s homecoming was a resounding success, thanks to the efforts of our student council and staff members. The dance brought together 1,257 students which is a grand step in the right direction for Mrs. Wright.
“There’s a place for everyone in the building, not just people that are athletes or not just student council people, I try to incorporate every single person on our campus into the things that we’re doing in a way that, they want to come to the event. And to have that feeling of belonging, which, rolls into, fewer people doing self-harm, more people coming to school, and more people graduating. It’s, overall, just kind of building that community, then, strengthening the bonds that create that, because that’s what’s going to hold everybody together.”
