For over 10 years, every spring the juniors are treated with their own banquet. Only recently becoming Sadie Hawkins, “the dance is supposed to be just for fun. Other schools usually have a senior/junior prom but since our classes are too big we can’t combine it like that,” Administrator Joseph DuBoyce said.
With the help of Senior Planning, the Junior Planning committees begin putting the dance together as early as January once school resumed after winter break.
Juniors danced away the night from 6:30 p.m-10:30 p.m.. Junior Planning, the master minds behind all the work, spend weeks to ensure that everything was perfect and enjoyable for their class. The four different committees that worked together were tickets, promotions, decorations and music.
This year the theme that won the vote was “Out of this world.” Mardi Gras, The Wizard of Oz, and Disney/Pixar were losing options. “We decided the theme by having everyone that was involved in planning JB like everyone in the committees vote on four options,” junior secretary Deanna Schaeffer said.
The theme, Outer Space, was advertised with posters hung around the school, reminding students to buy and pick up their tickets. Tickets were first sold on sale beginning Feb. 16 for $35. After Feb. 26, the price went up to $40.
The dance is always on a Friday because hotels like the Hilton, which is where Junior Banquet takes place, has a higher demand on Saturday nights due to wedding receptions, so holding it on a Friday night is cheaper.
This year Junior Banquet was on Friday Mar. 17, which was also St. Patrick’s Day. With controversy as to what the theme would be, “I’m so happy the theme isn’t St. Patrick’s Day because I feel like it’s so cliche and outer space will look so amazing,” junior Katie Mikalis said.
Around 320 tickets were sold leading to the banquet almost being completely sold out. “It is one of my favorite nights of the year because there is not as much social pressure as Prom and everyone can just dance with their friends. I feel like there is a lot less pressure to have a date and less people actually do go with a date so it is a lot more laid back. I like to think of it sort of like an eighth grade dance,” DuBoyce said.
Junior Nabila Okudo enjoyed junior banquet. “It was like a mini bar/bat mitzvah for high schoolers. I had so much fun and it was so cute how on the tables were Milky Way chocolate bars and Starbursts which fit the theme. I danced with all my friends and it was honestly the best night I’ve had junior year,” Okudo said.

Ava Castelli

Staff Writer