The black light rally was planned by ASB to be held on Dec. 6 as a way for students to take a break and relax, especially around finals week, rally commissioner, senior Parnika Kotamsetti said.
Kotamsetti said much planning went into creating the right atmosphere for such a large rally.
“This is my favorite rally of the entire school year,” Kotamsetti said. “I think we were the first school in our district to do a rally like this, and now other schools are doing the same thing. It’s a stress reliever for a lot of students.”
A logistical challenge ASB faced was getting the blacklights on the ceiling, which meant getting the custodians and other people to help out, Kotamsetti said. In addition, having people to set up the bleachers, plan out games, and coordinate with the performers were issues ASB had to tackle through their preparation, Kotamsetti added.
Advertising and communication with staff proved to be another difficulty in the path of planning the rally, social manager, sophomore Maya Power said.
“Advertising was difficult, especially during the winter,” Power said. “When we put up posters, they would fall down, and people weren’t outside as much.”
Social managers also helped plan and advertise all the spirit days leading up to the rally through emails and social media to get students involved and excited, working hand in hand with the rally commissioners to execute the rally smoothly, Power said.
After the rally, ASB held reflective discussions about what went well in the planning and the rally and what could have gone better, social manager, junior Agnes Ko said.
“Some pros were that everything went smoothly, and we didn’t have tech issues,” Ko said. “Some cons would be that cleanup could have been faster, and we were discussing what kind of advertisements would work best [for next year].”
ASB considered hosting the next blacklight rally after winter break next year. However, there were concerns with advertising and the rally overlapping with finals and winter formal, Ko said.
The blacklight rally was a great opportunity for students to come together and make memories, Power said.
“Overall, I think we had really great performers this year, and we had really fun games.” Power said. “It was very creative compared to events in the past.”