The WHS Student Council planned and hosted the first ever homecoming dance on Friday, Sept. 27 at 9 p.m., following the homecoming football game against Acton-Boxborough. The school-wide dance was held in the field house, which was decorated to fit the masquerade theme.
The ideas and planning had been in the works in the student council advisory since the spring, but the event wasn’t announced to WHS students until the beginning of the school year on the @waylandstuco1 Instagram account. While student council presidents have tried to create school-wide dances in the past, this year’s president, senior Venezia Sebastianelli, was the first to actually achieve it.
“I was inspired by other schools around the country and close to us to host a homecoming for WHS,” Sebastianelli said. “[The] Student Council and I thought it would be fun for Wayland to be a part of that tradition and be able to experience a dance in which anyone in the school could go.”
Everything about homecoming was unprecedented, from the location of the fieldhouse to the number of attendees, so the student government had to start from scratch. Student council was responsible for the planning and setting up of the dance with the help of their advisor, English teacher John Keene, as an overseer and guide.
“The students picked out our decorations, helped us set up and chose the DJ,” Keene said. “My role was to help make sure that the kids can take ownership over the things that we do. As long as we kept track of those details and different people shared the load, then things wouldn’t fall through the cracks.”
Homecoming is a school wide event, unlike prom or sophomore semi, so making sure that every WHS student could go if they wanted was a part of the planning process. There were 350 students who bought tickets prior to the dance and almost 50 who bought at the door, so about half of the WHS student body attended the event.
“One of the things we really wanted to focus on was getting as many people to come who wanted to go,” Keene said. “In order to do that, we had to be pretty careful about how much we were spending, so the tickets would be $25 or under. We also made sure to hold the event on a Friday so that Boston resident students could attend the dance and be provided transportation and dinner.”
The dance was a masquerade theme, so students were encouraged to dress in semi-formal attire with a mask. If one didn’t have a mask of their own, they had the option of getting a black, gold or silver one at the door when they checked in. The atmosphere was decorated to match with gold, black and white decorations throughout the fieldhouse.
“The most stressful part about making homecoming happen was the decorating process,” Sebastianelli said. “There was a volleyball game located in the fieldhouse right before as well as a football game, so we were in a time crunch. It was also hard since the field house is so big, we couldn’t really cover up the orange walls. We did the best with what we had, but I think we could have done a better job with the decorations.”
Along with decorations, there were other additions to the field house to create a dance ambiance. The DJ was in the back next to the dance area, as well as a photo booth which gave students the opportunity to get photos taken by WSPN staff in front of a backdrop. The bleachers were open for students to sit on, tables were scattered near the door and a buffet table of Chick-Fil-A catering was located right next to the entrance.
“The food wasn’t meant to be a full sit-down dinner, just more of a late-night snack,” Sebastianelli said. “So we picked Chick-Fil-A because it is nothing fancy but still really popular among high schoolers.”
Since this was the first homecoming dance for WHS, students couldn’t anticipate exactly what it would be like. There was no dress code, venue or menu like prom and sophomore semi.
“I was pretty intimidated when I first arrived because I got there super early,” junior Riley O’Driscoll said. “No one was dancing yet, so it was pretty awkward, but once more people showed up, especially older students, it became fun. The best part was definitely the DJ; in my opinion, the music got really good, especially towards the end.”
O’Driscoll and junior Zoe Garcia both went to this year’s homecoming and may be attending next year’s as well. As juniors, the student council members of their class will be the ones leading the preparation for the dance.
“One thing I’d hope to see next year is more marketing on social media leading up to homecoming,” Garcia said. “And a better grade ratio, since I felt like it was mostly freshmen and seniors.”
Since student council tries to improve or add events to WHS’s calendar every year, this homecoming may be the first of many. After years of different councils wanting to create one, a school-wide dance to commence the school year could now become a tradition at Wayland.
“I was definitely scared that people’s expectations were going to be super high, like expecting a prom type event when it is really designed to be casual,” Sebastianelli said. “So it was really rewarding when I saw it all come together – the dancing, the lights, the food – after months of planning and getting to watch everyone enjoy it.”
This story was originally published on Wayland Student Press on October 4, 2024.
