DVHS Leadership will hold their first-ever night rally at 6 p.m. on Dec. 13, 2024 in the main gym. The proposal has circulated for years, and the rally and its sister event, the earlier Winter Carnival, have drawn the focus of the Leadership class.
“There are some local high schools who have had successful night rallies last year,” Leadership teacher Daniel Bowen said. “For example, we sent some kids to Dublin High’s night rally to check it out and get some ideas. I have a good relationship with their teacher, so we’ve talked a lot about it over the years. This was luckily a year where we were able to make it happen.”
Unlike a traditional rally, a rally after dusk faces unique scheduling challenges. For example, according to Bowen, they plan to temporarily install black lights in the gym for the event. It would be impractical to completely black out the gym windows, so they were restricted to a date and time where it would be fully dark outside.
“With daylight savings, we had a November to March window to make that work,” Bowen said. “But with winter sports, like basketball especially, they use the gym a lot. There’s a limited amount of Fridays that had no gym space conflicts.”
The rally is sponsored by local business Joya Yoga, and admission is free. Shirts with the rally logo will be on sale on the day of the rally for $3. However, the Homecoming dance has also funded proceedings.
“Our biggest fundraiser of the year is Homecoming, the Homecoming dance, and so we allocated a big chunk of money from the Homecoming dance profits to support this rally,” Bowen said. He noted that sponsorship funding allowed them to buy specialty prizes.
The Winter Carnival from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. has free admission as well and will receive a portion of the profits from the food trucks stationed at the event. To teach middle schoolers the ropes of event organization, some Leadership students will be shadowed by their counterparts from Windemere and Gale Ranch.
“I signed up to be a middle school mentor,” Leadership junior officer Parsa Mahyari said during one of the class’ preparation periods. “I’ll have a little middle school buddy with me and [will] hang out with them there during the winter carnival.”
As he spoke, a school custodian arrived with a cart of boxes filled with rally shirts, met with a flurry of activity in the Career Tech building. Meanwhile, students knelt on tables painting posters to hang around the school, while others buzzed in and out of Mr. Bowen’s office, shouting directions amicably.
“Honestly, it doesn’t feel like we’re doing much right now, but in reality, since there’s so many people in Leadership and everyone has one small task, it adds up,” Mahyari said. “If there were 50 people, then we would be feeling it. But since there’s so many people and each person gets to pick up a responsibility… but in reality, we’re working as a team, a unit, you know.”
For example, the Rally team has taken charge of the event, but PR and Decorations are putting up signs and Prideline is responsible for the merch.
Another collaboration occuring is with the DVHS dance program, whose members, like at the Hoco rally, are helping coordinate and choreograph class dances. A mixture of dance students and Leadership class officers will lead the routines, which any student from each grade can participate in. For some, the onset of their dance performance was rapid.
“It’s coming pretty quickly. Because when you’re in November, it’s like ‘okay, it’s a month from now, there’s a lot of time,’” junior Matthew Nguyen, an officer helping lead his class dance, said. “And then after break it’s two weeks from now, so you kind of have to get the ball rolling pretty quickly, mostly in school but also outside of school for practicing.”
The classes held interest meetings before Thanksgiving break and have been rehearsing during Access or lunch periods. Unlike the Homecoming rally, there will be only one dance per grade with separate boys’ and girls’ choreography. However, the presence of dances at all is unique to the night and Hoco rallies.
“I think seeing them [the dances] for Hoco is probably my favorite part of any rally, the different creative stuff that all the classes come up with and how they’re all kinda different,” Nguyen said. “They all kinda have a different theme going on. I think that’s something I really like.”
Mahyari was cryptic about prizes available at the rally (later publicly announced to be a free pair of Airpod Maxes), but emphasized them as a potential draw for students to attend. He and Nguyen agreed that, though the date approaches finals week, the intention is for students to blow off steam and enjoy themselves.
“I hope they find it to be maybe even better than other rallies, ‘cause it’s at night, and I hope that it’s something that they bring back every year,” Mahyari said. “Maybe make it a tradition, maybe have another one in the spring? But I hope they at least have something to enjoy before finals, maybe to de-stress.”
