By Stephanie Ford

Every year, members of Sunshine work to create an enjoyable dance for everyone. This year is no exception.

Mrs. Jessica Gordon is in charge of Sunshine, a club that helps out with Sweetheart and other events through out the year. Sunshine organizes, creates and provides a lot for the Sweetheart dance every year.  Mrs. Gordon says, “It’s just fun to see the dance come together, form the original idea to the final product, and to see students enjoying it!” In all the past years the dance has been at Christo’s Banquet Center and judging from the reactions of students afterwards, it has been a blast. However, this year it will be at the high school itself because of the large amount of students that attend it. As Mrs. Gordon stated at the first Sunshine Club meeting, Christo’s can only hold a limited number of students at one time.
Mrs. Gordon says, “I actually think [the dance being at the high school this year] is going to be great! We’re getting so many cool decorations, and we’ll have lots of space!” Even with the change of place, Sunshine members plan to have an even better Sweetheart this year. Mrs Gordon says, “[Sunshine members] are helping to assemble the decorations, set up, clean up, sell tickets, and find chaperone’s.”  Sunshine members have a lot of weight on their shoulders involving this dance, but they have pulled it off before and they can do it again.
Each dance that is planned requires a lot of work from the students involved in Sunshine. They start discussing it around the first meeting of the club and go from there. The leaders of the club are the ones that make most decisions but every girl in Sunshine helps provide options for them. A theme has to be made up and the decorations have to be set up. A lot of the decorations are made by the students themselves. Since they are within a budget they try to make the most of what they have to work with. Mrs. Gordon says, “It won’t be at Christo’s this year, but it will be just as fancy. Also, this year there will be some really unique surprises.” Something that Senior Kyle Cartwright would like to change about the dance is “having it back at Christo’s,” where for Senior Mykelle Humphrey she wishes there would be “more cool decorations.”  Humphrey further explains, “I’d like to see lots of cool looking lights – something mellow, but still neat and pretty looking.” The dance being at the school this year should help cut down on the costs to have it, providing more money for the decorations. Every member that is free the day before the dance and the day after helps set up the decorations and pick up afterwards.
Students want to have a dance that they can remember forever. Sunshine tries to meet their dreams by creating the best dance they can experience. Mrs. Gordon says, “I think that they just want a chance to dress up and have a great time.” It isn’t done overnight though, Mrs. Gordon says, “It takes a lot of time to coordinate all the decorations, the D.J., the chaperone’s, etc.” In the end, the Sunshine class officers have the final say in how things go, but Mrs. Gordon said they ask for input from the entire club.