Sweetheart Gala

The Sweetheart Gala is the most important fundraiser for the band and percussion programs at my school. On a day that I believe is almost always held on the second Friday in the month of February. The Sweetheart Gala has become very popular since it's first event however many years ago. The Varsity Jazz Band is brought in to play music on the stage while the rest of us band members are dragged into the mess of it all.

The miraculous Varsity Jazz Band! Retrieved from this website! This was not during the Sweetheart Gala, however. You can tell because at the Sweetheart Gala they were wearing these really cool white suits.

All band members who are in their Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, or Senior year are required to sign up for a job. Yes, a job. Despite what you may think, many of my band companions were excited to help out and raise some money for our program. Most of the money this year would be going to the marching band's trip to Hawaii. This made us even more excited to help out because that trip is very important to us.

I signed up to be a server. I was required to be at the church from 4:45pm to around 9:00pm, or whenever the person who was overlooking our training and such said we could go. At 4:45, training started. My friends and I were all there on time, but there were two people who were absent. My classmates assured the man that these two boys were "reliably late". Meaning that despite the fact that they were late, they would at least show up. Sure enough, a couple minutes later, the two showed up, one at a time, of course.

We were each assigned a table, despite the fact that it was a group effort to get everyone's food to each table. We were to welcome our table when they arrived and introduce ourselves. My friends, Emily and Whitney, who were also servers, were horrified to this part, for the three of us aren't exactly the kind of people who love jumping into conversations of total strangers to introduce ourselves. Whitney was the most familiar with this kind of thing, however, she's very mature when it comes to meeting people. I can tell. Often times, I am with her when her mother will introduce a friend of hers to Whitney. I on the other hand, do my best to avoid any friends of my parents at all costs. Emily is just as bad as I am, if not worse depending on the situation.

Photo of my fellow musicians who volunteered as Hostesses along with Mr. Taylor at the Sweetheart Gala! Retrieved from this website!

After getting the job done, we were eventually called over to start handing out food. The two main dishes were salmon and beef. There were two people in the crowd, however, who were vegetarian, and so they got a special vegetarian meal. When people were brought to their seats, they were in possession of one of three different colored hearts. A pink heart meant that person had ordered the salmon meal. A red heart means that they had ordered the beef. White color represented those two vegetarians we were hosting. So we went back and forth and back and forth multiple times until all of the twenty-three tables that sat eight or so people to each had all their meals.

I don't understand why the servers were required to bus as well, because I signed up to serve, but I didn't complain too much. I ended up dropping a knife twice, but my coworkers were kind enough to grab the things I dropped. My friend Emily dropped two forks. Or maybe it was two spoons. I don't remember. After all the tables were practically done, we all hung out in the volunteer area, a place where the people attending wouldn't be able to see us. I ate my dinner that I had brought because a couple hours without food is like a nightmare for me. We all lounged around for a while, before deciding to go hang out around the people again. There were those few people who still needed things and we were there to help them.

Of course, by this point, half the room is on the dance floor. It isn't really a dance floor, it's just a certain amount of space that is vacant of tables where people are encouraged to dance. During one of the many briefs during band class that Mr. Taylor and Mr. Hughes gave us, Mr. Taylor was explaining the jobs and such, when he got to the point that we were actually encouraged to dance. This blew my mind. We were supposed to be working not huddling on the dance floor. Of course, he guided us to get out of the way if the dance floor is too crowded. Having my perky extrovert at random times personality, I did bug my friends to dance with me. Whitney, Emily, and Syscillia (working elsewhere, but hanging out with us since her job didn't really do anything at the time) all declined, and I had no other friends around me. Eventually, Annie came around for her break. Annie and I sit next to each other in band class and so we're friends. I whined to her how my friends wouldn't dance and she said she'd dance with me. This made me very happy. So we went onto the dance floor. I soon realized how bad of an idea that was because I have no idea how to dance. She sort of did, but at one point we were practically just spinning in circles like maniacs. I just hope we didn't scare anyone out of coming back next year. Despite my well hidden doubts, it was a lot of fun. I did end up getting a blister on my foot and then it popped because of the continuous crazy dancing, but it doesn't hurt anymore.

Photo of my classmates Syscillia and Drew working at the Sweetheart Gala! Photo taken by Mr. Hughes. Retrieved from this website!

Only a little while after finishing dancing because of my blister that hurt, my dad came and found me to take me home. I didn't really want to leave, for us servers were allowed to sneak into the kitchen at will and gorge on the cake that no one wanted. I had also heard that at 11:00pm we were allowed to eat everything. Including the bread rolls. I have an obsession for food, especially things like cake and bread rolls. But I was tired and my blister hurt so I complied to go home. Saying goodbye to my friends, I grabbed my lunchbox and water bottle to leave.

That was my day at the Sweetheart Gala. I had more fun that night than I had at any other party-related event practically ever.