By: Isabella Trafton
Last Saturday, October 16th was Quaker Valley High Schools’ annual homecoming dance. Despite many obstacles in its way, the dance still took place at Chuck Knox stadium and it was very successful.
This year’s homecoming has been like no other year. In the past, the dances have been held in QVHS’ gym, but this year in order to keep with COVID-19 restrictions, the dance was adjusted to be outside. “The gym was not a logical option and so figuring out space and a date and time was the first big obstacle.” said Mrs. Muraco, the head of the homecoming committee.
At first, the dance was scheduled for the 9th, the day after the homecoming game, but it was switched to the 16th. Talks of cancellations were brought up and many students feared their homecoming dance was going to be canceled for the second year in a row. According to many forecasts, there was a high chance of rain during the event, but luckily the rain subsided before the dance and the stadium was dry by seven o’clock that night. “Dr. Riccobelli was in communication with local meteorologists, monitoring everything. They were supposed to make the call depending on the weather, but thankfully it all cleared up and dried up and it was perfect,” Muraco responded when asked about the stress of the weather forecasts.
Although this year’s dance was very different from the years before, students still kept the same spirit. Many students, even with the changes and adjustments to the traditional dance, were just happy to be there after the lack of one the year before. “I was really excited to go back and feel like I had those high school memories that everyone talks about after; especially after missing them from Covid.” Sophomore Lizzie Szuba said.
The dance was sparsely decorated with just one tent and some strobe lights, but it was not the streamers or the lights that mattered; it was the way the school was able to come back together after such a long time. The school-hired DJ played student-selected songs all night. Students had the ability to request songs through the Google doc sent out the week prior. As the students danced through the night under the tent, the bright strobe lights hit their eyes and the intense sound created a wonderful atmosphere. After so much time apart, students could dance, jump, express themselves, and have fun. Throughout the night, dance circles formed, students were thrown into the air and held up like crowd surfers, and some groups of students toppled over from dancing with their peers.
Of course, there would be no homecoming if not for all the hardworking teachers and faculty that planned this event. We, the students, would like to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.