By Rhys Chesick, Current Staff
After being postponed, the West Bend High Schools charity week and dance are back on.
The WBHS student council, along with other clubs at the school, will organize this year’s events. Charity week involves daily donation drives to benefit area groups and is scheduled for March 14-18, with the dance March 19 at West Bend High School. The dance will be a formal event, with the theme of “Peace, Love, Hope.” DJay Mando will make an appearance with lights and music. Students from Kewaskum High School have also been invited to the dance.
This year’s charity events were originally planned for early February but postponed due to complications and troubles throughout the planning process, including the rise in COVID-19 cases.
Other obstacles involved getting match grants for the different charities, getting groups to claim charities for each day of the week and sponsoring the dance, according to Brynn Bauer, student council co-president.
There have also been scheduling complications. The ACT, spring break and time for groups to plan the charities were all considered in the planning process. The week currently on the schedule is also scholarship week, when seniors are individually interviewed by a committee that will determine who earns scholarships from the local COLUMNS organization. On such days, schoolwide announcements are turned off so the interviews will not be interrupted.
“From 9:10 to 9:20 a.m., (the school) won’t schedule scholarship interviews, so we can have (charity) announcements for the week,” Bauer said.
“I am so happy the dance is happening this year.”
– Morgan Rasmussen, West junior
Official details for the charity week and dance will hopefully be released sometime in the next week. Final decisions for the week and dance, including which gymnasium to use, will be discussed at the next few student council meetings.
Last year’s charity drive and dance also faced many complications. The main challenge was that COVID-19 was on a major rise. This caused problems with collecting money for the charities, since people were not allowed to physically touch the money. Due to these restrictions, Bauer suggested that there should be a week of drives collecting shoes, clothes and food. But those plans fell through, resulting in WBHS not having a charity week or dance for the 2020-2021 school year.
“I am so happy the dance is happening this year,” West junior Morgan Rasmussen said. “I had so much fun and can’t wait for it to happen again.”
(Top image includes a graphic adapted with permission via Wikimedia Commons.)
The West Bend Current 