Bloomingdale Yearbook

Many students around the school do much during the year in preparation and anticipation of homecoming. But, for some, there was a conflict of whether or not to even go. There were different reasons that students listed, but the most common reason given was because of money.

Said junior Dominique Celerin, “I didn’t feel like spending money on a dress.” This was a popular reason among girls who had chosen not to attend because they felt that a dress alone was too costly. But, since homecoming was so celebrated among the students, some still felt that they were missing out.

“I like to dance and I wish I could’ve seen my friends that don’t go here,” said junior Shanice Carter. But, the others that didn’t attend seemed content with their decision.

“I’m going out to eat that night [instead],” said junior Dominique Celerin. But, when asked about their plans to attend homecoming in the future, the decision was mutual among all.

“Definitely for my last year,” said junior Shanice Carter.

Students felt that they had a lot to look forward to at homecoming, but some of them felt that the best part was getting ready. For girls, it was the primping: doing hair, nails, and buying a dress. For guys, it was buying a suit and getting a fresh haircut. There were many expectations and one major one was the students’  dressing up, which was so important to many.

But, the most talked about expectation was the actual activity to happen at homecoming. Many feelings were very similar.

Said junior Genesi Estrada, “I was looking forward to dancing and hanging out with my friends”. This compared closely with the feelings of junior Olivier Ishtiaq, who said he was most excited about “anticipation of dancing and seeing everybody dressed up.”

These students prepared mentally and physically for homecoming and when asked if he  plans to attend homecoming next year, junior Olivier Ishtiaq said, “Yeah, definitely”.

As our homecoming game was coming along everyone was excited for the week of homecoming since its our spirit week. Our spirit week was the whole week with different things for everyone to dress up as, but the one that everyone was involved with was the Blackout!

 Blackout is one of the most important days though. Blackout day is Friday October 9th, everyone is going to be dressed from head to toe in black. Some students are choosing to have there face painted. You aren’t allowed to paint your whole face though.

Ashlee Allen,10, “I got a black out shirt because I wanted to show my school even though  I have plenty of other black Bloomingdale shirt, but I thought I’d buy it because there kind of cute and only $5.”

The student government association SGA were selling blackout shirts for the game and school. They were selling the shirts for 5 dollars at 4Th, 5Th and 6Th lunch. By Friday October 2ND the shirts were sold out.

This year on October 5th through October 9th the annual spirit week will be returning to Bloomingdale.

During spirit, week spirited students and teachers dress up according to the themed day. This year’s line up of themes, starting with Monday, includes: mix-match day, celebrity/character day, age swap day, nerd day, and on Friday, the new “black out” day to support Friday’s  homecoming black out football game. Saturday will be the homecoming dance.

Some students are more spirited than others and dress up the entire week.

“My favorite day is celebrity day.” Said junior Brooke Lott. “As a cheerleader, dressing up for spirit week shows my spirit for the school and its a lot of fun right before homecoming.”

Some students are not as spirited.

“I didn’t dress up for spirit week because I don’t like spirit week. I don’t have the spirit…we’re going to lose the game anyways.” Said junior Jasmine Gibson ” But if I were to dress up, I would do mix-match day.”

     Everyone knows that homecoming is a very significant event.  Whether it be the game, the dance or the week leading up, homecoming is a huge event.  But how does it all come to be? 

     SGA starts planning for homecomeing and spirit week as early as summer.  They begin by choosing the theme for the dance.  Members simply take any ideas that come to mind and sift through them untill they arrive at a top 3.  They then vote on the most popular from those.

     After a theme is chosen, SGA has to start making decorations.  They paint banners and make posters and signs for advertisement.  They also have to buy balloons and streamers and other things that match the theme.  This usually begins early in september, when members meet on Saturday mornings.  When it’s all said and done, homecoming can run into the 1000’s.

     In addition to planning the dance, Student Government also comes up with the days for Spirit Week.  The spirit committee looks back at previous years to see what students like and didn’ like.  They keep ones that people really love, like nerd day, and they try to experiment with new days if one wasn’t such a success in the past.

     Junior Janna Edwards is a member of SGA who enjoys planning the dance and watching it all come together.  Planning for homecoming is ”fun because I have alot of spirit and i like painting.”  “It’s lots of fun with other people too.”

This Friday, students met again in homeroom for the third time this year. Their reason?  To nominate the homecoming court for the football game versus Plant City. Once the ballots were passed out, it was the students’ decision which nominees would be riding Corvettes during halftime at the big game and which ones wouldn’t be. 

“[The homecoming voting] went good, I guess,” said freshman Brandon Flatau, after turning in his vote sheet.

Some of the homerooms had a neck-and-neck race between two different people. Homeroom teacher Ms. Rebecca Johnston was in a similar situation.

“Yes, it was close with the guys, ” Ms. Johnston said. “One had two more votes than the other.”

So close, but yet so far definitely played out in a few homerooms, and the difference of one or two votes still determined the winners. Homecoming voting took place early, and with it, many new and exciting memories will come  to the overall winners of this fiery and classic competition.