Cardfest, this year’s alternative to the annual homecoming parade, was held last Friday on SHS’s front lawn. It was made up of a collection of clubs and organizations within the community that wanted to show support and advertise.
Cardfest drew in a large crowd and some believe that it provided an interesting and fun event for the community.
The event included many school related organizations. For example, sports such as lacrosse and basketball, and even school faculty, who just wanted to give back to the community, were all present.
At the festival, many different organizations boasted their own unique strategies to attract students. The basketball team set up a hoop and allowed people to test their skills and make a shot. The Myanmar Student Association (MSA), which assistant treasurer and sophomore Nu Hniang Sui helped run, also offered many different opportunities for students to explore Chin culture.
“We had our traditional thing thanakha we offered to put it on those who wanted to put it on,” Sui said.
Organizations from outside the school came to advertise too such as Megan Lazeolla who is the Director of Volunteer and Community Engagement for the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization. She attended the event to promote her organization and during that time, she was able to see the effect the event was having on the community.
“It’s fun. There’s a lot of people. It seems like (there is) a lot of excitement around this and lots of participation and then lots of guests too,” Lazeolla said during Cardfest.
Two people who helped in the making of the event are English teacher Sam Hanley who serves as a sponsor of the Booster club and junior Katie Crouch who is a member of the Booster club. The Booster Club is responsible for planning and executing SHS events like the Cardfest.
“We put the tables together for them, and we spaced everything out. We put up the Cardfest map site signs and we put up all the signs on the table so the clubs knew where to go,” Crouch said.
The decision to make the change from the parade to Cardfest was made suddenly leaving only about 5 weeks for all of the planning to be done.
“We were in school for probably like 2 weeks and we found out we couldn’t do the parade so we immediately started planning,” Crouch said.
Despite the sudden change from the parade to Cardfest, Hanley still believes the event was a success.
“I would say that it exceeded our expectations generally,” Hanley said. “I think people were mingling and having fun and interacting with each other, which is what we wanted to do.” And I think it gave a lot of different student groups, alumni groups and community groups a way to show off and to be present in the school community.”
As a result of the success of the event, there is a possibility that it will be run again next year but it is not confirmed.
“The big question that everybody wants to know is, ‘are we doing this again or are we bringing back the parade?’ You know, I don’t know the answer to that,” Hanley said.
As a result of thorough planning and execution, Cardfest ran smoothly, seamlessly and efficiently. Booths were set up quickly and when it was time to pack everything up, it was a quick and concise process.
Cardfest was an opportunity for the community to come together, and due to the effort of everyone involved, it did what it set out to do.
“It was really fun. There was so many things to go to and see,” Sui said.
