Park’s student council plans a spirit week, dance and pep fest every year around homecoming. It takes significant time and dedication to make sure that all these events run smoothly. With the homecoming pep fest always being the first schoolwide event of the year, it can be challenging to convince everyone to participate and show their Park pride.
According to junior student council member June Davis, the purpose of the pep fest is to get everyone thrilled for homecoming. She said the pep fest helps boost a sense of community at Park.
“The main goal of the pep fest is to get the students and staff ready for the game and the homecoming dance. (Also to) just make us feel more united and excited about what’s coming. It’s important as a community thing because it’s when we’re finally all brought together and all excited for one thing,” Davis said.
According to student council advisor Valerie Weaver, the main goal of pep fests is to show that Park is one community. She said events like this bring people together under one cause.
“Pep fests show that we are all one community, we are all one school and we all have this one thing in common that we can rally around,” Weaver said.
Senior student council member Coralee Arnold said with homecoming being earlier this year, more effort had to be put in to start planning ahead of time. She said it usually isn’t like this, and they often have more time to plan and organize.
“This year, our homecoming was super early, so we had a few meetings right before school started and then we got right into it when we got into school. Sometimes we’ll have one or two meetings a week or so before school starts, and normally we have enough time, but it was a very quick turnaround this year,” Arnold said.
According to Davis, one of the hardest obstacles the student council runs into while planning pep fests is the lack of people who want to be involved. She said that when planning these events, it’s important to keep in mind other activities that people have going on.
“When planning for the pep fest, we have to keep in mind people’s activities and stuff, just what’s going on that day. Also, making sure that most of the students are there and that the band is ready, stuff like that. (An obstacle is) not having enough people to do the activities because they’re scared to sign up, which is why we encourage people to join us,” Davis said.
Arnold said that spirit week takes a lot of planning and consideration, specifically because they want to increase participation. She said coming up with themes for the dress-up days and dance can also be tough.
“(Spirit week) does take a lot of planning, especially thinking of good themes for every day and the dance in general. Spirit week can be hard because we don’t get a lot of participation, so we’re trying to figure out which days are going to be what (theme) and what will have the most participation from the student body,” Arnold said.
Weaver said she takes care of checking with the admin and other teachers. She said offering supplies and helping students plan are also things she handles.
“I make sure all the logistical pieces are in place, like checking with custodians, gym teachers, the band teacher, admin, all that stuff. Also offering supplies and just supporting students in the planning process,” Weaver said.
