Students dressed in formal wear with smiles on their faces walk through the doors of the H2 building. On the dance floor music blares and colorful lights dance across the floor. Students line up at the photo booth to take pictures with their friends. A well set up event for a good cause and yet there are not very many students in attendance. There seems to be a stigma around EVHS Winter Formal but it still raises a lot of money for wish week. The winter formal supports a good cause and is a thoroughly planned event, so why is it unpopular?

Since winter dances are popular across the country and Eagle Valley’s is supporting our wish kid Sadie, why has winter formal become a ghost town?

Stuco Co vice president Reese McCormick thinks she knows why. She says “Advertising and trying to get people to come to the dance is specifically hard. The winter dance is really hard to advertise for because a lot of people just don’t come to it.” She also said that it is a hard time of year to host a dance as spring sports are just ramping up. Regardless it is a lot less advertised for and talked about a lot less than other dances.

Many agree that the winter formal would be much more fun if more people came. However, the stereotype that no one goes seems to deter even more from going. Many also mentioned that they wished it was more popular because it would be a fun event. “I think if there were more people there, it would have been like a lot more fun because there are just more things that you could do with more people there.” says EVHS sophomore, Allie Braun.

Other students such as Caitlyn Cramer had a similar experience last year, she says “There were not a lot of people there and the experience was just not up to par with things like homecoming.” She agreed that it would have been a better experience if more people showed up.

Winter formal continues to be stereotyped at EVHS despite being centered around our wish kid and raising money to support her. Stuco member Audrey Tatro says “A lot of people don’t know that all the funds that we make off of winter formal go directly to Sadie and her wish none of the funds are kept by Student Council”

However if you did not attend winter formal, contributing in Wish Week is still an option with the closing ceremony occurring on Wednesday March 15th.