By Jacqueline Risch
Winter formal may have been in the year 2020, but TPA turned back time to party in the Roaring Twenties! This year’s winter formal was at the Arizona Museum of Natural History where the high school partied all night under colorful lights and ancient history all around them! From The Great Gatsby decorations to the dinosaur models around them, this year’s winter formal couldn’t have gone any better.
Kelly Clark, a junior and one of the vice presidents of Student Life, coordinated this event. She says “the process to plan this dance was long. I knew I wanted to try and get a new venue, so before anything else I had to find one within our budget. But then we called the museum and their price was perfect for what we were looking for. At first I was really skeptical about having a venue with dinosaurs, but I think it turned out great!”
Senior Gracie Newman couldn’t have agreed more. “I thought the venue was amazing! I loved being able to walk about the museum and party on a rooftop. It was a sweet venue and a really interesting idea!” Since Gracie is a senior, this winter formal was her last. One memory she will take away from this night is that “since my sister and I knew it was our last dance together, we made sure to dance with each other a ton. She’s got killer dance moves and she taught me ones I didn’t even know!”
Rebekah Chadwick, another senior, said at the end of the dance “the last song hit hard. I was dancing with all my sophomore friends and we all just started crying and singing our hearts out knowing it’s our last dance together. The night could have lasted forever and I wouldn’t have been upset with it.”
Our seniors were very appreciative of all the hard work that was put into the dance. Kelly said, “My mom and my team really helped me. They helped me during planning and really kept me grounded.” Thank you to all the parents and volunteers for helping plan the event, and thank you to the juniors who helped decorate the museum that morning.
Looking back on the night, both Rebekah and Gracie have the same advice for the upcoming seniors. “We know it’s ‘cool’ to come late to dances, but we honestly wish we had come earlier. We loved dancing with everyone; we’re such a small school, but we feel like one big group, and we love that about TPA.”
Thank you students, parents, and volunteers for a fantastic night! The students will surely never forget this night at the museum!