On Jan. 26 at Kenmure Country Club from 7 to 11 p.m., West Henderson will be hosting its first ever winter formal, called “Winter Wonderland.”
The dance will have a semi-formal dress code and is being led by student government. SGA adviser April Bryson said that her inspiration to run an event such as this had been in the works for an extended period.
“A lot of schools in the area hold a winter semi-formal, and really we’re one of the only schools that don’t,” Bryson said. “They’ve had a lot of success, and students have had a lot of fun with them, so we thought that we would try it.”
Kenmure Country Club is a large venue that has been around for more than a century. Located at 100 Clubhouse Drive in Flat Rock, students will be able to dance and snack for $20. Guests are also able to attend. A guest would encompass a student who attends another school in the area. The price for a guest will be $30, and they will also have to fill out a guest application form to confirm that they’re fit to attend.
“A guest application is picked up at the front office. Once the guest application is completed, our administrators call the school that the guest attends to get approval from the administrators over there to make sure the guest can attend ours,” Bryson said. “What’s looked at is behavior and anything that would keep the guest from coming to our school.”
Food at the event will not be catered in efforts to maintain a lower price for those who want to attend. Ideas such as a cheese bar have been discussed; however, drinks will be provided for individuals at the dance.
“It’s not like prom. That’s one thing we want to be careful of. We want to keep prom prom,” Bryson said. “This is certainly a semi-formal, and we will probably have food right now. It’s like a cheese bar because we want to keep the cost down. And if we cater the food in, we have to increase ticket price and we don’t want to do that. In order to keep the cost down we will have really light snacks and there will be drinks provided.”
Winter formals are typically held between the homecoming dance and prom, and is usually a diversion for the larger prom that is held in May. As such, Bryson said the dress code shouldn’t be as heavy as it is for prom.
“A lot of people get kind of confused and, again, we don’t want it to be prom dresses,” Bryson said. “It’s more cocktail dress, so I would say a little more dressy than church, but not as dressy as prom. There’s that fine line that it’s in between. For guys it would probably be a tie and khaki pants, not a tuxedo. A tie is not required by any means, but dress more than casual, just not as much as prom,” Bryson said.
Bryson said members of student government are excited to see their work toward planning the event pay off.
“It is a first annual,” Bryson said. “We’re excited to see how it goes. It is a possibility we would move it earlier in the school year. We want to see how it goes, but it’s something even our administrators have been interested in and have talked about for at least a year, so that’s why we want to try it this year.”
Students planning to attend the dance are also excited for the opportunity.
“I’m excited to see the new venue because we’ve never had a dance that wasn’t in the school cafeteria,” senior Anna Ippolito said. “I’m excited about my outfit too. I’m wearing a romper. It’s going to be fantastic.”
Tickets are already being sold. Students can be dropped off and picked up at the end, and parking spots can be used by student drivers.
By: Jose Guadalupe Tinoco Hernandez
