By JOE LUETKEHANS – Among a sea of lights, snowflakes, and excitement for the holiday season, IHS students who attended the Tinsel Ball on Saturday, December 16th found a place to strut their stuff on the dance floor while supporting on the school’s largest student organizations.
The dance, held by FBLA as a fundraiser, was held in the upper commons like MORP and most of IHS’s dances. The Tinsel Ball is one of IHS’s all-ages dances, allowing students from all grade levels to attend and enjoy the night. The evening featured DJ Bob Rout of Third Wave Sound, which took the traditionally peaceful and academic setting of the school’s general seating area and turned it into a quasi-nightclub, complete with a teacher-operated soda bar.
FBLA, which is often cited for its position as a leading IHS club, has shown this year once again that its efforts to give back to the student body is what makes it so successful. According to senior Shreya Bharadwaj, FBLA President and a key planner of the event, “Seeing a lot of enthusiasm among members to get involved and help out was probably my favorite part of the whole experience.” It is because of major clubs like this, Key Club, and SGA that students are able to enjoy similar activities.
One of the dance’s biggest fundraising events was the Tinsel Ball King/Queen vote, in which students were allowed to vote for any of eight nominees by making a donation to their specified jar. Junior Laurance Nakrosis and senior Jordan Raible were awarded their crown and tiara respectively, beating out their six competitors, two from each grade level. Running alongside Nakrosis and Raible were freshmen Austin Homes and Janet Barber, sophomores Lexi Smathers and Simon Bianco, junior Breanna Smathers and senior Giacco Gentile.
Sophomore Antonio Capirossi, who attended the Tinsel Ball as one of his first IHS dance experiences thoroughly enjoyed the evening, as it offered a way for him and his friends to hang out at school in an entirely new way stating, “The best part was just being able to see my friends and hang out with them.”
This year’s winter dance was a particularly hot seller, beating last year’s attendance of nearly 200 students, closely following MORP’s ticket sales. Chase Cunningham, a junior who attended the dance stated, “I like what they’ve been doing with the dances this year… Overall I had a really good time, and it’s nice that more and more people are supporting our clubs at these events.”
With more and more dances becoming school successes, the time is right to buy tickets to support IHS’s various organizations, who usually donate the funds or use them to help complete their goals for the students of IHS.
[Photo by Erik Puskar]
Photo caption: “Junior and Tinsel Ball king Laurance Nakrosis and junior John Harper express their thoughts on the 2107 Tinsel Ball.
