Valley’s 50th Anniversary Activity by Lucas Bland

Food. Food is by far the strongest motivator for teenagers to go to anything. Even since before I became President, I knew that for an event to be successful, there are two main points to consider. The first and most important one is food, so much food that teenagers could stuff their fat faces full of it. The second is advertising, more specifically advertising about what kind of food will be at the event. For Valley’s Student Council, the most difficult aspect to consider in regards to having successful events is hoping that students even show up in the first place. We hardly have any students, and a lot of these students have work to attend to or are only thinking about sleeping as soon as they get home. As one of these students myself, I know as soon as school is over I want to head home to my bed and watch reality television shows, questioning why Brion would ever think of cheating on Shante.

At normal boundary high schools, the most important aspect of an event are the very many activities they wrap their brains around to have. Valley is an exception, because at Valley all students ever really need as motivation to attend an event is to make sure there’s all kinds of food and soda to go around. We took suggestions from all kinds of students to know what they would like to eat for the event to make sure that their stay was satisfactory.

Advertising is sooooo hard. When I look at the sheer amount of work I did and alternatives to advertise the event I feel like having a stroke wouldn’t be so bad. By far, the most important thing about why activities fail at Valley is because we advertise and treat them as activities. If you’re going to create a humble activity in a classroom and say that students can go for Power Time stamps, then they won’t actually be motivated to go at all. The reason for that is because they’d feel that it’s more like an extra assignment to do for Power Time stamps rather than something they should go to to have fun. Who in their right mind would spend an hour on something they don’t care about for a measly two stamps for ELECTIVE credit?! That’s why this event did so well, that’s why ~80 students showed up. Because we made the choice to advertise it like a school event and not a “Power Time Activity,” so many more people showed up. And a Power Time Activity is exactly what that party was (but with extra fun things and food), but since we chose to format it and advertise it like a fun event full of things to do and to enjoy, so many more people showed up. What’s even more surprising, is the fact that we only had 4 days of advertising for the event, the very week that the event happened. Our advertising was *that* successful in just 4 days that almost 100 people came.

The 50th Anniversary Event was an event to celebrate 50 years at Valley. The Student Council saw the importance in having lots of activities for students to do while they’re at the event. There was a nintendo station, a soda float & snacks area, card game table, art and face jeweling. Everyone also had an opportunity to write thank you notes to Valley, which Lindsay insisted should be in this year’s yearbook. These different sections were split around the room to accommodate for everyone that would come to the event. Tables to eat were set up with tablecloths for those who just wanted to eat and talk. In the center of the room, musical chairs were set up for both the students and faculty to play, as well as a space to be utilized for the parachute.

Overall, everyone including faculty were very excited to see the sheer amount of students that came by to enjoy the event together. When roughly counted, there were ~80 students that stayed for the entire duration of the event. By far a strong contender in student turnout for Power Time Activities! Everyone had a hand in how this event turned out, even teachers and students. They each put in their suggestions and wishes for something that they’d like to see happen which greatly contributed to how successful it was! Even before the event started there were a few students who went to others to talk about the Event and to get more input to help it succeed. One section that did really well was the art section! There were at least 15 students there at all times and it was such a nice addition to the event! The event was worth staying for and students were hopping between different sections to try out all that we set up.  Teachers & Office faculty also came by to enjoy the event and some even participated in musical chairs and the Nintendo section. This was a fun event for everyone and I hope that for the future of Valley, we get to have more events like this that bring people together.