As Homecoming Week approaches, Student Council is readying themselves for this much-anticipated celebration that it has been preparing for almost half the year already. StuCo is the main student proponent behind the organization of all the fine details that make the Saturday event, and the festive week beforehand, so memorable and noteworthy for students every year.

Planning and preparation for all of the homecoming revelries start early for officers of the council. The theme, which this year will be outer space, is picked before the school year of the homecoming even starts, all the way back at the end of the previous school year. Junior Sydney Aleksick, an officer on the council, was one of the council members who suggested the theme of outer space, and describes the way in which themes are picked every year.

“So, at the end of the [previous] year, we kind of throw some ideas in that we haven’t done before. Then the last meeting before we get the incoming freshmen into StuCo, we vote, and then [that] will be whatever the theme is this year,” Aleksick said.

As partygoers walk into the school on the night of homecoming, the students will feel as if they have been transported into the cosmos. Black gossamer, UV lights, and glow in the dark paint are just a few of the decorations that will adorn the hallways on the night of Sept. 29, according to senior Jordan Merli, another officer of the court, in charge of gym decorations.

“The gym is basically going to look like a galaxy,” Merli said. “Just the decorations and more than just paper being hung up on walls I think are going to be really exciting.”

In addition to the effect of inky black making the walls look like the final frontier, Aleksick, who is the officer in charge of the front hallway, is especially excited for an interesting extraterrestrial sculpture that will be at the entrance, ready to greet students at the door.

“We’re also going to have a UFO at the entrance,” Aleksick said. “So it’s really simple, but it’s gonna be kind of cool.”

Another new change is that some funds from the sales of tickets to homecoming would be going to a good cause,  a difference noted by Mrs. Stacey Denningmann, sponsor of StuCo.

“We are donating money from ticket sales to the Harvester Christian Backpack Program,” Mrs. Denningmann said. “Our council voted this year to donate money from the ticket sales to those costs. It’s going to be…either one or two dollars per ticket sale.”

This year as well, student council is aiming at making payment and ticketing less complicated. Using the barcodes on the back of school-issued IDs, aides can just swipe the card and give out the tickets without putting stickers, which can peel or rip off, on the back. In order to verify tickets, they merely swipe it again and it will show whether or not the student is allowed to attend.

“We’re trying to make the process of buying tickets easier,” Mrs. Denningmann said. “It’s more simplistic [and works] better to be…user friendly.”

Though the changes this year may be untested in our school, members of the council are confident it will make the celebration a better experience for everyone, hopefully coming away with pleasurable memories of the out-of-this-world night to last a long time after the jubilations have concluded.