DECA adapts to COVID-19 restrictions
Club implements new fundraisers and concepts
Used with permission from Emma Amon. DECA members pose for a picture at its Family Partnership collaboration Dec. 20, 2019.
October 29, 2020
After the DECA meeting Oct. 21, senior DECA officer Emma Amon said that the meeting went well, even amongst the challenges faced with scheduling and virtual meetings.
“The meeting went pretty good,” Amon said. “It’s harder to have it in a virtual setting and also having it last minute, but it ended up going pretty well.”
Junior and newly elected DECA officer Andre Barajas said that he was pleased to hear he got elected as an officer.
“I’ve been in DECA in the past, so I was excited to have a bigger role in it this year,” Barajas said.
Amon said that Barajas also has good social skills on top of experience in DECA.
“He’s personable and he has also been involved in DECA for a long time,” Amon said. “He has also been running our social media, which has helped.”
DECA adviser Abby Lugo said that many uncertainties are yet to come with DECA competitions, as in-person competitions have been moved to virtual competitions.
“We will not be able to compete in person like we typically have. For the district competition, there are usually around 775 students that compete in different events on Jan. 31 at Wayzata High School,” Lugo said. “Wayzata said that they probably won’t be able to hold it at their school because non-students can’t be in their space as well.”
Senior president Koby Davis said that due to the risk of infection, the club is implementing a new platform this year to have online fundraising instead of the conventional fundraising procedures.
“We talked about how we were going to fundraise this year, which has been different because we have traditionally done door-to-door pizza sales,” Davis said. “Because we can’t do that this year, we have decided to go with Snap Raise. We are all excited to see how this platform plays out and see how we can use it in the future when we want to limit exposure.”
Lugo said she is adamant that the club will be able to continue its assistance to Family Partnership and that creating a procedure to do so is necessary.
“We sponsor preschool-aged children, and we go out into the community and ask people to sponsor the kids individually and buy them gifts for the holiday, a pair of mittens and a hat,” Lugo said. “We usually go to the preschool to visit them and we sing songs and it is the most amazing experience, so we’re going to have to figure out how we are doing it virtually this year.”
Even with the ongoing pandemic, Davis said that he is enthusiastic about new concepts that will be incorporated into the club’s agenda. Davis also said he believes that the club’s virtual setting will be useful for recruiting new members and for reducing the overall anxiety surrounding DECA.
“We talked about our new subcommittees, which is going to be a great way to get more people involved in DECA,” Davis said. “We can use this opportunity in an online environment to bring more people in and remove that fear and stress that some people associate with DECA. This will be a great way to increase our membership and give people a DECA experience.”
Lugo said that the class dynamic coming into the hybrid model is undetermined, as the ambiance is precedented by the officers.
“Every year looks and feels different, depending on the student leadership. It is a student-run club at our school, so it really relies heavily on what my officers can encourage with participation,” Lugo said. “As being a member of the virtual community of school, it will be interesting to see what they can do, change or enhance that might be different from what I am trying.”
According to Amon, the next DECA meeting will be held at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 4 on Zoom. For more information regarding DECA, you can visit their Instagram page @slpdeca.
