To increase attendance, Celebrity Ball was originally scheduled on Friday, Feb 28 in order to reflect a more informal setting. However, due to bad weather days and rescheduling conflicts, the ceremony and dance will now be held March 8.
“You can’t push a dance back a month,” Student Council Sponsor Dustin Barth said. “We want the awards to mean something. In a month, you’re not even going to remember who you voted for. So we decided, even though we were a little concerned, that March 8 would be a good day.”
Student Council was at first considering only having a ceremony, but decided against it.
“Obviously an awards ceremony really only benefits the people who get nominated,” Barth said. “So we wanted something else so we could get people to the awards ceremony and then have a good time afterwards. There was debate on whether or not we even have a dance at all but we kind of decided that you know that’s what [Student Council] wanted. They felt that that represented you guys and what you would want.”
Barth said that moving the dance from the gym to the cafeteria will be a positive change. In addition to the concern that Student Council would only have a few hours to prepare before a Friday dance, many events were scheduled or rescheduled to the original dance date. Although the dance is on a Saturday again, the setting for this year is expected to still be less formal than past Celebrity Ball dances.
“I feel like sometimes there’s been a focus on dressing up because there is an awards ceremony,” Barth said. “There is some formality there and I feel like that’s deterred people from coming and having fun. I want people to know they don’t have to be dressed to the nines, and come out and have a good time.”
Barth’s biggest concern now is finding teachers to volunteer to be chaperons during Spring Break.
“That’s an integral part of the dance,” Barth said. “Students don’t see that, but teachers have to donate some of their time to come for no reason other than they want you guys to have fun. That’s really what we’re scrambling with now trying to get that situated.”
According to Barth, last year’s Celebrity Ball sold around 200 tickets and Homecoming sold 375 tickets. Student Council president Priya Patel said lower ticket prices of $10 may mean higher attendance, but it can also mean risking increase in losses.
“We still want to make it look good but we don’t want to spend too much because we don’t want to lose anything,” Patel said. “My dream is to have everyone come but I mean that’s kind of not realistic. And I don’t know why people wouldn’t want to go. I think people feel good being nominated for stuff and having a say in who’s what in their class and stuff like that. I think that if we didn’t have that, like what’s to look forward to second semester? So I guess people just need to be in the spirit of it.”
While Patel does acknowledge that there is a good portion of the school that does want the dance, many still question whether or not this school tradition should be continued.
“Celebrity Ball is a tradition and I don’t want to be someone who’s going to take that away from the students,” Patel said. “We have it every year why should we have to cancel it? But it’s also it depends on what the students want. [I] try to get [everyone] into it, but I can’t really change someone’s mind or force them to go to the dance or anything. But you never know what’s going to happen. Every year is different. Everything is a risk. Might as well take it. ”
(Left) Looking through the clothing, junior Jimmy Nguyen prepares for Celebrity Ball
(Below) Trying on dresses, junior Melissa Barron smiles as she poses in the mirror.
(Bottom) Ticket for Celebrity Ball. “North Garland High School Presents An Enchanted Villa March 8 6:00-10:00pm.”