Spirit weeks, pep rallies, senior shirts, prom, senior day; these are just a few of the last events that seniors will participate in before graduating and moving on. WCHS students are notorious for a lack of school spirit. This may not seem harmful on the surface level, but there are major effects, especially for the senior class. During senior year, students finally get to participate in events that they have looked forward to throughout their high school career. However, these events may not live up to student expectations due to lack of class funding.
Although countless fundraisers have been set up, WCHS students fail to support seniors, leaving their class funds sparse. When students do not show up to support bake sales and t-shirt fundraisers that the SGA has set up for them, events suffer in the long run.
The class of 2025 seniors have gone through a whirlwind of changes concerning their prom this year. Due to an insufficient amount of money raised, there were concerns that prom would not be able to be hosted at the iconic Fillmore Center that many students were hoping to attend. Fortunately, they were able to turn this around and host prom at the Fillmore this year, but there is still concern about where prom may be hosted in the future.
As the Fillmore is a hot location, it takes around $25,000 to rent the venue for one night. The class of 2026 has currently only raised a little over $10,000. This raises concern for many students that prom may be held in the school cafeteria next year, something many students are opposed to. Although some students may argue that raising the price of prom tickets can solve this problem, this would make prom inaccessible to many WCHS students, which would be devastating for many students who have looked forward to this event all of high school.
Although the class of 2026 is in a slightly better position than the class of 2025 was, they are still about $15,000 under the total fundraising goal for all four years. With this information, students who are in the class of 2026 can expect to pay for all of their senior events, which include senior day, prom and potentially the senior shirts.
The lack of money raised is rooted in students’ lack of school spirit. When students are not willing to show up for school during fundraisers, consequences will be faced. Many students believe that their small two-dollar donations may not make a difference; however, when many students show up for fundraisers and make a small donation, a significant difference can be made in the long run.
By the end of senior year, classes have a best-case scenario goal to have raised about $80,000, which would allow students to pay minimal fees when attending major events. However, under the circumstances that students are able to raise more money, closer to $100,000, students would then not have to pay any fees to attend events such as prom or graduation, and also not have to pay for the small things, such as matching senior shirts.
WCHS students must be more spirited about supporting their school in order to create the ideal environment. This is not just about not supporting fundraisers, but also through participating in spirit week, unity days and the activities that the school sets up for students. When student participation in school spirit increases, the school environment can become more fun and welcoming, which may encourage students to continue participating. This has proven to be a very important factor of fundraising, meaning WCHS students need to take immediate action to try and reverse this lack of participation.
In order for the class of 2026 to lower the cost of admissions tickets to their senior events, they must start at the root of the problem and go support the fundraisers that are put in place for their class. These include bake sales, Chipotle fundraisers, California Tortilla fundraisers and awareness shirts. While these small fees may not seem like they would make a huge difference, with support from the whole class, much more money can be raised and put towards these senior events that have been looked forward to by many students for so long.
To solve the worry of prom being held in the cafeteria, students must step up to the responsibility; otherwise, they will be unable to attend the venues they had once hoped for. This should not be taken lightly, and it should be a source of concern, especially for current underclassmen who still have a lot of time to raise money.
