Originally scheduled to take place on February 6, the annual Winter Carnival was cancelled due to a lack of overall interest from clubs, according to Coordinator of Student Activities Jaime Baranoff.
“[The Student Union] was prepared to host the Winter Carnival, and we sent out a sign-up form to our approximately 90 clubs that we have in this school, and out of the 90 clubs, 10% of clubs actually signed up,” said Ms. Baranoff.
Ms. Baranoff further explained that the “The SU has limited time and resources, and we would rather do other things than put on this event that the clubs and teams [were not interested in]. It’s fundraising for clubs and teams, and they didn’t want to do it.”
SU Club Liaison and junior Elvis Chan said that besides the clubs that signed up, there were many clubs that needed fundraising that didn’t show any interest in the event. “We have some FONs (Festival of Nations) that signed up because they need the funding.”
Ms. Baranoff said it’s not clear why the clubs and FONs did not take advantage of this event even though they constantly need money for club activities and resources.
She said lack of awareness of the event should not be the case because of the SU’s outreach regarding the event through meetings, distribution of forms, and Google Classroom posts.
However, club leaders who did sign up said they were looking forward to the Winter Carnival, hoping to use it as an opportunity for fundraising for their upcoming events, club resources, and to gain more exposure.
Sophomore and co-captain of Public Forum (PF) Debate, a newly established academic team, Mirabelle Miketa-Garcia said, “We were hoping to fundraise for our upcoming tournament at Harvard and [though] we were able to fund the trip despite the [Winter Carnival’s] cancellation, the event would have helped for other future tournaments like Yale and Princeton.”
President of Science Olympiad and senior Jenney Huang said, “We were hoping to give ourselves exposure as the Science Olympiad team, and how we’re not just academic people, but we also partake in team-building activities and [have fun]. [We were also planning to] raise some money for upcoming competitions and materials.”
For the clubs that did sign up, Ms. Baranoff said there will be a fundraising opportunity on March 13 in tandem with the Reading Initiative’s Read-Dating event.
“I would like to say that of those limited number of clubs that did sign up, Elvis worked very hard to collaborate with Mr. Sweeney and Ms. Laverde [the Reading Initiative advisors] to give them a place to fundraise at the Read Dating event on March 13.”
According to Ms. Laverde, Elvis met with her and Mr. Sweeney last week to discuss a collaboration with the Reading Initiative. Usually, “Read Dating” is an event held on Valentine’s Day, but since that day fell on the Friday before the mid-winter break, they thought few students would want to stay after school for the event.
Now that it will be held in March, students will be able to sign up for the joint event. Read Dating pairs students based on their reading interests (after they fill out a form) and offers them a free meal in the library so they can meet, eat, and discuss their favorite books. This year, Elvis will create a related form where students can find a potential friend based on shared interests and will be invited to a “club showcase” where clubs can sell food and run activities for the paired students.
When asked about the event, Elvis said, “This event is mainly to provide an alternative opportunity for those clubs who were interested in Winter Carnival. It’s basically a mini winter carnival but with some twist into it but [we] will try to make it engaging for more people to participate.”
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