The P-CEP homecoming events have come to a close, but few know of each school congress’ decision process hiding behind the glamorous and exciting time that kicks off the school year.
Having all of the Park schools traveling to distant locales was not the initial planning as the congress’ do not consult each other when selecting homecoming themes, but this year Canton visited Brazil with its Hoco de Rio; Plymouth traveled to Greece for its Mediterranean Getaway, and Salem toured France for its Night in Paris.
As Plymouth and Salem had chosen their themes earlier, Christina Lakkis, senior and vice president of Canton Congress, said her team realized it would be fun for all three schools to choose a destination theme.
The schools came to their decisions in similar but slightly different processes for picking a top theme. Both Salem and Canton have voting systems in place, the top vote securing the title of the school’s theme.
Canton Congress’ voting process involves each grade level developing an idea, and then the congress as a whole votes for the best theme.
Similarly, Salem Congress also votes for the top theme; however, they individually brainstorm ideas and write them on a piece of paper, voting for the top three. According to Salem Congress Vice President Haylee Wong, once Congress members have voted for the top three themes, they revisit the discussion a few weeks after, voting a second time to decide on the favored theme.
Plymouth took a different approach to picking its theme. “We do a bracket style where we have our members put in ideas that they want, or are thinking [about], and then we get the most, I think it’s the 10 top ideas,” said Plymouth Congress President Natalie Southwick. “Then it’s just bracket style, where it’s two [themes] against each other so we have one theme [remaining]. It’s kind of like March Madness.”
Plymouth’s top two themes were between Enchanted Forest and Mediterranean Getaway. The coastal excursion eventually won over the members of Congress, becoming the final theme. Salem’s inspiration stemmed from the desire to do a destination theme, which the majority agreed to.
Lakkis explained that her main inspiration for the theme came across her TikTok page, where she saw another school do the theme “Hoco de Rio.” More inspiration bloomed from visual discovery platform Pinterest as well, where Lakkis saw examples of decorations, such as the door decoration contest.
All three schools began planning during the prior summer.
Salem Congress said its main struggle was the timing of when the homecoming court should be announced. “But we overcame that by communication,” said Wong. “We were talking to the court, we were talking to our halftime committee, and we overcame that challenge.”
Similarly, Plymouth Congress’ main concern also involved timing in regard to the ordering of decorations so that they would be delivered on time. “Our reimbursement process takes a while,” Southwick said. “We had to send our list of stuff to admin in July, so they ordered stuff for us. After that, it just took a really long time for decorations to get there. So it was kind of a waiting game.”
Southwick explained that in spite of all of the nervous tension of waiting, homecoming still “turned out pretty good” once everything was organized.
Lakkis said that Canton Congress’ organization and planning system has been refined throughout the years so that most issues have been eliminated.
Wong agrees. “I think the process has gone pretty smooth.” she said.
