Instead of the usual ultraviolet glow of black lights illuminating the auxiliary gym this month at the Sadie Hawkins dance, visions of sparkling dresses, sharp suits and glistening string lights will take their place at a newly designed Snowcoming dance.

“For Snowcoming, student council has changed the dance from a casual theme to formal theme,” senior Sean Stiles said. “For the guys, instead of wearing the usual khakis and a collared shirt, a suit and tie-like homecoming would be worn. The same goes for the girls, instead of casual dresses, formal dresses would be worn.”

In order to make Snowcoming a success, members of student council have taken note of past issues with Sadie Hawkins dance. In the past, student council has struggled to attract attention to the dance and experienced issues with low ticket sales.

“The main inspiration for the change from Sadies to Snowcoming was the fact that Sadies got cancelled last year after multiple opportunities to be brought back,” senior Nolan Suydam said. “Student council realized over the years that a semi-formal dance isn’t a popular thing. Students like to dress up, go out to dinner and take pictures for the dance. They didn’t see Sadies as that big of a deal because it was semi-formal so people wouldn’t do those things.”

While planning the dance, student council recognized that with three formal dances in one year, it may be difficult for female students to financially afford dresses for each occasion.

“At our last Flint Metro League Student Council meeting, the idea came up of having a dress resale for girls so they don’t have to buy three different dresses,” Stiles said. “We are hoping to join with a couple other schools to put on an event like this for our Snowcoming.”

Along with changes in theme and attire, Snowcoming will also bring about changes in music choice and decorations.

“Right now we’re brainstorming a lot of ideas about what students want as far as spirit days, music, decorations and things like that,” senior Madeleine Welch said. “The big idea for decorations is Christmas lights and snowflakes in the halls and in the gym. For music, instead of a DJ we’re going to use an iPod playlist created by a couple students.”

For more of the story, look for the first issue of 2017 in the media center or SRTs on Wednesday, Feb. 8.