Typically, on a mid-morning Saturday, one would expect to encounter barren hallways and dark silent rooms throughout the majority of the school. However, quite the opposite occurred during the late weeks of August into early September. Endless laughter, colorful paint brushes, and loud music filled the corridors. All of this commotion was due to the preparations of one of MN’s most anticipated evenings: Homecoming.
After a vote late last year, Student Council decided on Disney for the theme.
“The board chose Disney because almost everybody has seen a Disney movie in their lifetime. Everybody grew up with Disney movies. We tried to have many different types so that students resonate and think back to their childhood,” senior Student Council Co-President Tatum Morris said.
The board members worked to create a night that will be filled with diverse Disney characters such as Nemo, Cinderella, Buzz Lightyear, and Ariel. They avoided using any one specific type of Disney movie, in fear of not being able to connect with every student that purchased a ticket.
“Our theme is not just Disney princesses. There is Pixar, too,” senior board member Ben Raffel said.
Diversity of the Disney films remained a strict priority throughout the decorating and planning process. Characters featured at Homecoming night will not generate an overly feminine or masculine atmosphere. This vast variety in the theme was increasingly engaging to work with and sparked excitement among Student Council board members.
“I am very excited because I feel like I am going back to my childhood. I really like the movies that we chose because there are some old, some new, some popular, and some people wouldn’t really think about,” Morris said.
However, decorating such a theme requires time and effort. Student Council received help from board members and students around the school. Homecoming preparations began 4-5 Saturdays before the dance with students working for up to 4 hours at a time. The night before the event, they will set up the decorations around the school.
To create decorations, students utilized overhead projectors to trace the characters onto paper that was then painted. This process was repeated for every character that will be featured throughout Homecoming night.

Despite this time-consuming task, Student Council members found ways to enjoy the work.“It is a blast because everybody is working together to make the bigger goal, listening to music, having fun, looking forward to what is to come,” junior Mitchell Graves said.
Student Council’s goal was to make Homecoming special for everybody. The work that was put into the theme by Student Council members is to ensure that the night resonates with every student, especially students whose first high school dance is Homecoming.
“It’s the freshmen’s first high school experience, it is what you see in movies, planning it for them makes it more worthwhile,” Raffel said. Student Council members are given a new perspective on Homecoming because of their behind-the-scenes work.
“At the Homecoming dance, I could walk into the gym and show more appreciation because I helped make this entire thing work out,” Graves said.