By Cassidy Johnson
This Saturday Apopka High School had its long-awaited Homecoming Dance. Lasting from 8:00 pm to midnight at the House of Blues in Disney Springs, the theme was “Hollywood Walk of Fame.” SGA did not disappoint, with decorations that included an actual red carpet as the students entered the venue. For the first hour of the dance, pretend paparazzi were hired to crowd around and snap pictures of students once their tickets were verified.
The focal point of the entire event was the center dance pit. I’ll admit, I initially felt like a sardine packed into a jar with all my other squirming peers, but once you found your own area among friends, you had room to get your groove on. Eventually, as everyone found their place, it became easier to migrate through the crowd going from friend group to friend group. With the heels off and ties loosened, students and their guests were free to dance. The music featured the perfect mash of oldies and recent hits like “Apple Bottom Jeans” and “Bodak Yellow” respectively. The DJ was thoughtful enough to throw in a few slow songs, unlike the DJ at Prom last year. Strobe lighting, fog machines, confetti cannons, and a ball drop certainly added to the effect of a great night. With this being the last Homecoming of their high school careers, the seniors took the night for themselves. It was 12th graders who were jammed and clustered up against the stage the whole night. It was 12th graders Christian Rottinghaus and Jackson Flemming who crowd-surfed, and Christian who later hyped up the crowd again from the second-floor balcony.
Both levels of House of Blues were open for the dance. Though students could move up and down between the two floors, administrators and teachers kept a watchful eye all over to deter any funny business. Mrs. Cooke-Weaver, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Powell, Ms. Richard, Mrs. Jandy, Mr. Mellon, and Mr. Peters are a just a selection of those who provided adult supervision. Drinks were handed out in small cups individual cups throughout the night so that no one would spike anything.
Homecoming was not originally set to be so late in the school year. The first date for the dance was September 23rd–but then Hurricane Irma came. The problem wasn’t that she caused damage to the venue, but the hiatus on school. With the almost week and a half that school was postponed due to the storm, the decision was made that there was not enough time to sell an ample amount of tickets and for each class to construct their parade floats. November 11th was a date made based on the availability of House of Blues and around other school-sponsored events like Band’s MPA. Spirit Week, the Homecoming Parade, and the corresponding football game were scheduled to correspond on Friday, October 13th. Unfortunately, the football team did lose that game to rival West Orange, but we still have made it to the playoffs.
As SGA is responsible for all things concerning Homecoming, one member, in particular, deserves special credit for bringing the dance to fruition. SGA Vice President and senior, Hope Hanson, served as co-chairperson on the dance committee with the President, dealing with all the intricacies and nuisances that stood in her way. This included handling all the contact wit
h the House of Blues, the music, food, enhancements and other small details. Hope told me that SGA ended up selling about 870 of the 900 tickets available, which is greater than what was sold in recent years. An ongoing endeavor for months, she said that “over the summer I started planning and getting things ready.” You can thank Hope for the killer tunes. “I got in contact with the DJ, so I had a playlist for him. He didn’t play all the songs, but he played most of them.” You can also thank the Vice President for those enhancements that continued to enthuse the crowd: “We had the fog, the confetti, and balloon drop that were all really cool. The food was different, there was nitrogen ice cream!” Apopka High truly owes a debt to the hardworking members of SGA, who worked around a hurricane and “detached” Homecoming events to bring the dance to life.