As sophomore Sarah Wojtasiak reflects on the Sadie Hawkins dance, she said she enjoyed seeing her peers outside of the classroom.

“I thought it was a good opportunity to get together with other students,” Wojtasiak said.

According to DECA co-adviser Sophia Ross, the overall attendance of the event increased compared to last year’s Sadie’s dance.

“Last year there was 150 students who went to Sadie’s. This year there was 250,” Ross said. “It looked like everybody was having fun. I think it went well.”

Ross said the growth in attendance stems from the promotion from DECA members.

“The students probably promoted it a lot more to their friends. We did pre-ticket sales where students could actually sell the tickets,” Ross said. “So may be like getting the word out a little bit earlier and getting their friend groups involved I guess (contributed to attendance).”

In addition to DECA members promoting Sadie’s, Ross said she attributes the dance’s success to senior Joe Holloway.

“He said he posted on his social media like, ‘Everybody come to Sadie’s. I am going to be DJing,’” Ross said. “I think that determines if people are going to attend the dance or not.”

Wojtasiak said the dance allowed her to witness the imagination of students at Park through their barnyard themed costumes.

“I thought it was like a great opportunity see other people’s costumes and how people express their creativity and get to socialize,” Wojtasiak said.

According to Ross, selling tickets for Sadie’s benefited DECA through fundraising for future DECA events.

“Each ticket that they sold they got $2 put into their DECA account to help pay for conferences,” Ross said. “The end goal is for them to really make some money off of it, so their costs for the conferences isn’t so much.”

According to Ross, the skills learned from orchestrating an event like Sadie’s benefits DECA students in the future.

“It’s awesome for the students involved who are planning and putting on the event,” Ross said. “They learn so much from doing an activity like that. So, it is a great learning experience.”