Gibson Southern High School’s Fall Homecoming Dance was changed this year to the Legacy Lawn party.
“We talked to the Student Council officers, and they expressed that the dances were not well attended,” Student Council co-sponsor Kara Martin said. “So, they came up with the idea for the Lawn Party.”
Over the past years, the number of students attending the Homecoming dances has dwindled, even though the main point of dances was to get students together and celebrate Titan pride after the Homecoming game.
“At the last Fall Homecoming dance I chaperoned, there were 75-100 students who had attended the dance,” Martin said.
Since the dances were not well attended, the council had to get creative and think about possible ideas to attract more people. The Lawn Party consisted of different outdoor games students and their guests could play and celebrate being a Titan. A big component of the Lawn Party was the pickleball tournament – which consisted of more than 30 different teams. For those who did not want to play pickleball, there were the options to play cornhole, Twister, Spikeball, Jenga and other games for those in attendance. People who wanted to simply hang out with friends, they could sit around and enjoy the variety of drinks and snacks. Overall, there was a little bit of everything for everyone to enjoy and have a time to show their Titan pride.
While teams were eager to get on the tennis court and try to be the best at pickleball, the tournament was sidelined due to the number of teams and the lack of time. The football game against Henderson County went longer than expected, so teams got to play one another for rotations of about five minutes. While no tournament champion was crowned, students said they enjoyed the opportunity to play against one another.
“We estimated about 200 students attended the Lawn Party last Friday night,” Student Council co-sponsor Jenna Gengelbach said.
With many more opportunities at the Lawn Party, it attracted more students and did better than most Fall Homecoming Dances.
“Personally, my favorite part of the Lawn Party was the free food,” Gibson Southern freshman Tucker Sollman said. “I did like the Lawn Party. I would also like to go to a high school dance at least once.”
As a freshman, Sollman and others did not know what a “normal” Homecoming dance was like, but sophomores, juniors and seniors have only ever had the dance.
“Looking back at my freshman year, I wish they would have done the Lawn Party then,” Gibson Southern senior Olivia Alston said.
With the success of the Lawn Party, it appears to be the new thing for the student body.
“As long as the students want the Lawn Party to stay, then we will keep the Lawn Party,” Gengelbach said.
