By Lauren Barbour
[email protected]
Since September, a student committee and an adviser have been working together to organize Winterball, which will be held on Dec. 7, 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Beach Hotel. The theme for this year’s Winterball is “A Winter Fairy Tale”, and the colors are maroon and cream. Both the committee and their adviser have been working hard to ensure Winterball goes well despite the problems that have arisen.
“I go with the philosophy, ‘Begin with the end in mind,’ so I always draw up the list of what we should do, what we have to get accomplished on the day of Winterball,” explained Junior Joseph Tagorda, a student representative on the planning committee. So far, the committee has been able to stay on task and keep up with what they are required to do.
In the early stages of planning, deciding on the theme and colors is a given priority. “We start with theme and colors and go from there — favors and centerpieces, menu,” said Winterball Committee adviser Jeni Nishimura. All those present at the first meeting discussed possible ideas. “Everybody has to be open to opinions. Nobody can criticize,” added Tagorda.
As the committee continues working, bid sales and table sign-ups have already passed. This year, the committee is planning to open up more tables. Originally, there had been 56 opened for students, but an additional four have been added to accommodate another 40 people. “Which hopefully doesn’t mean a smaller dance floor. Hopefully that just means a smaller walk space between the tables and not a smaller dance floor. But we’ll find out,” said Student Activities coordinator Janet Ward-Riehle.
Besides the worries about space, there was another issue that occurred during bid sales for the tickets. The tickets were intended to have staggered prices, starting at $45 and increasing five dollars each day. Although the original intention was to stop long lines during the last days of bid sales, a complaint was made so the prices were eventually changed back to being the same. “(Having to change the ticket prices is) kind of a frustration because we had the price set and then we had to change it. Which makes processing it easier but we tried to do that staggered start with the price difference in order to avoid that procrastination of a really long line at the end of bid sales,” Ward-Riehle said, adding, “And I think it worked a little bit but there was still a really long line the last day.”
Another problem is also the date of Winterball itself. It takes place on Friday, Dec. 7, roughly three hours after school ends at the Pacific Beach Hotel. “Which is a big problem, even for us committee members, even for the girls, because you have to dress early. But also for other people because they also have to get their hair ready and all that kind of stuff,” explained Tagorda. This doesn’t provide a lot of time for preparation at the venue either, as the students on the committee are the ones who have to set things up. “On my end, I just kind of hope that it all comes together, which it usually does,” said Ward-Riehle.
Despite the various concerns and problems that have popped up, planning has gone well up until this point and there is not much left to do until the date of Winterball.
