Lack of Interest Cancels Winter Formal

by: Sydney Allen

Winter formal “Trapped Inside a Snowglobe” should have been held on Friday, December 4 from seven to ten, but was cancelled because not enough students bought tickets in advance. Tickets went on sale Monday, November 29 during both lunches.

Roughly one hundred tickets were sold, according to the event’s organizers. Mr. Goto and the Student Council decided to can­cel the dance on Friday because of how low the fund was and the low ticket sales. Student Council would have lost too much money on the DJ and decorations spon­soring the dance for Saturday.

Junior class president Nick Butler cited the administration’s lack of optimism for why the dance was cancelled. Based on their predicitions and recent sales, it was considered a “financial burden.”

“We don’t like to be cancelling events, but things don’t always work out the way you want them to,” said Student Council adviser Mr. Goto.

Students were not thrilled when they heard about the can­cellation of the dance. Seniors such as Heather Pechyno were frustrated. Pechyno said, “Winter Formal is supposed to be the fund­raiser for our prom--and they an­nounced it was cancelled through Facebook before they announced it at school.”

The decision to cancel the dance was questioned by the stu­dents who decided to buy their tickets at the door.

“Like forty of my friends were going to buy tickets at the door,” said senior Karen Jeffers.

Math teacher and adviser for the class of 2012 Jeff Evans jus­tified Student Council’s decision. He explained that Student Council decided against taking a gamble on how many students would buy their tickets at the door. The number of students expected to attend the dance would not have been sufficient to raise the neces­sary funds required to put on the dance.

“It’s not something we can base our decision off of [students planning to buy their tickets at the door], we need to know for sure; that’s a lot of money we would’ve been out of if they didn’t show up,” said English teacher Janelle Pritts.

Lack of ticket sales and student interest cancels
winter formal.

Students and staff feel they have missed out on the opportunity to experience a fun social event in high school. “The winter formal being canceled was a shame, be­cause I remember my winter for­mal when I was in high school. I had a lot of fun. Although many students were disappointed, can­celling the dance may have been a good thing since many students decided they weren’t going in the first place,” said English Teacher Jeanie Duncan.

Some students planned well in advance for what they thought would be their chance to wear nice clothes or enjoy it with their friends.

“Winter Formal being can­celed really sucks, because I had plans on going with an amazing guy, and a bunch of my friends,” said freshman Amber Shepherd.

Although the Winter Formal was canceled, the winter assembly was still held Friday, December 3 during third hour.

Various clubs and sports par­ticipated in the assembly. Street theatre performed a sequence from the musical, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and Twisted Legacy danced to Michael Jackson’s hit “Beat it”. Canyon Fusion Dance Company, the school band, the color guard, and Willow Canyon’s varsity cheer­leaders performed as well.

“The dance being cancelled was a bummer. But there’s al­ways next year’s Winter Formal, and the Black Out Dance coming up soon, so I guess it wasn’t the end of the world,” said sopho­more Saydee Black.