Jarring Turn for The Jamboree

Jarring+Turn+for+The+Jamboree

Liza DuMez, Writer

Torch Club tried to entertain the students of Loyola Academy by organizing a new dance called “The January Jamboree,” but it did not go as planned.

The January Jamboree was created in order to help students take a break from the everyday stresses of their classes. It seemed to be a superb idea, considering students also tend to complain about the lack of dances offered to them here at Loyola. For some reason, though, the students were not as eager as Torch Club had hoped.

Torch Club had been planning this dance for many months, but by the time all of the details were worked out, it was already Christmas break. This being the case, they had approximately three weeks to promote the dance when students returned from vacation. Days after the students returned, posters were being hung and announcements were being made in order to persuade people to go to this event. When this did not seem to be enough, members of Torch began promoting the dance on social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat.

When the time came to buy tickets, numbers were surprisingly low. Around 300 tickets needed to be sold in order for the school not to lose any money. Unfortunately, less than 100 students purchased tickets, and the dance had to be cancelled.

There was a variety of reasons students gave that resulted in their lack of enthusiasm. Senior Emily Cowen, when asked why she didn’t purchase a ticket,  said, “ I didn’t really feel like going to a dance with mostly freshmen and sophomores. I probably would’ve bought a ticket if I was a freshman because it would be a good way to make new friends. It should have been promoted more toward lower classmen or upperclassmen, but not both.”

Other students also mentioned how it being on a Saturday was most likely a factor for low ticket sales. Many people have commitments such as sports tournaments on Saturdays, so it may have been more successful if it was planned for a Friday.

Matthew Engels, the Vice President of Torch Club, spoke on “tradition” at Loyola Academy and how that affected this dance. He said, “since this a new dance at Loyola, kids were definitely hesitant to stray from the ‘dance norms.’ The notion that freshmen go to Tulip Trot, everyone else goes to Homecoming, and seniors go to Prom is so established at Loyola that it is tough to introduce a completely new event and dance.”

Engels also mentioned that New Trier has similar dances to Loyola’s ideal January Jamboree and manages to have a great turn out. Because of this matter, Torch club is working on new ideas for the future in order to bring enjoyable, stress free events to their fellow students.

Engels said, “In the future, Torch needs to be more proactive in getting the message of the dance across to the Loyola community.”