The Student Council has worked hard to prepare for the highly anticipated annual Winter Ball, taking place at the DCU Center in Worcester tonight. 

Student Council President senior Lizzie Connolly siad this year’s planning built off last year’s success, including reserving the venue for this year’s dance on Dec. 15. 

“Our last year’s Student Council made [planning] easier because we knew we didn’t want to find a new venue,” Connolly said. “Once we got back to school in September, we just started figuring out the logistics.”

Among these logistics was determining the quantity of food to be served. According to Connolly, there was too much food at the event last year.

“[We’ll be serving] the same [food] as last year, but I think we just got a lot of food; therefore, there was a lot of leftover food,” Connolly said.

The Student Council raised money for the event by communicating with regional banks including, but not limited to, Main Street, Avidia and Middlesex Bank.

“The banks are sending [the Student Council] money which is really helpful because usually [the money] can offset the cost of the DJ,” Connolly said. 

For ticket sales, the Student Council transitioned to an exclusively online ticket system compared to the combined in-person and online ticket sales from last year. Despite it being a challenge, the shift proved to be a success.

“We thought [ticket sales] were going to be slower than last year, but actually we’ve sold more tickets this year, which is very exciting,” Connolly said. 

Senior Class President Renee Gauthier originally believed the ticket sales were from freshmen alone, but in reality was an equal distribution throughout all grades.

“I think there could be a possible [school] spirit uprising in our school,” Gauthier said. “I think people might want to go and hang out with their friends and just have a really fun time.”

Another challenge during the preparation was the permission slips, particularly those used for students from other schools.

“[Student Council] then realized the [Google Form] permission slip was the same question you answered when you bought a ticket,” Connolly said. “So then we talked to the administration, and they were fine with just letting it be rather than having to go through a separate Google Form.”

Student Council Secretary senior Cass Melo explained how the Student Council was able to follow the same plan as last year which worked very well for replicating this year. 

“We’re thankful to everyone at the DCU center for making this possible,” Melo said. 

As students enter the DCU center, a simple scan of their digital ticket will grant them access to the venue, eliminating any unnecessary long lines from last year. Digital tickets were delivered to students in a confirmation email following purchasing their tickets.

“[Students are] going to have these QR codes on their phones and [the Student Council will] just scan them,” Connolly said. 

With excitement building, Connolly anticipates the success of the event and is excited to see students embracing school spirit, a goal for the Student Council this year.

“It’s going to be a fun night,” Connolly said. “It’s going to be a fun time with your friends.”

Editor’s Note: This article contains sources who are members of The Harbinger’s Editorial Board. Such members have been removed from this article’s editorial process in order to maintain fair and bias-free reporting.