Middle school student council keeping busy

Student council. When you hear these words, we don’t want you to think of a bunch of school nerds gathered around a desk talking. No! We’re more than that. We want you to think of a group of hard working, idea bringing, highly dedicated teens who dedicate their time making their school and community a better place. “But what exactly are they doing?” you ask. This little article is the chance to get the word out and to let you know about our Whitefish Student Council.

At every meeting, our goal is to brain-storm ideas on how to help our school and community. And after a few ideas, one of our members brought up one of the most successful suggestions yet. How about a dance? Now let it be understood that this idea wasn’t exactly new, it was just reintroduced. Last year’s dance was, in a nutshell, a total fiasco. Everything from inappropriate dancing to kids leaving the gym gave the impression that there would never be another dance ever again. But this year’s student council changed that.

The idea of a dance was like a snowball rolling down hill. The farther it got, there was more and more to add on to it. We handed a waiver to every student stating the rules and expectations of our dance. We added our now ever-popular quote, “Dress it up a notch!” And for the first time in Whitefish Middle School history, we acquired a DJ to keep the party flowing. In fact, each dance has been so successful, that student council has been able to put on a total of four throughout the year. We have to give our selves a pat on the back for that one.

By then, we were heading into the month of January, and we were busy as bees. We raised more than 2,000 cans of food for the local food bank and started a spirit day to show our school pride. But did the students know what we were doing? Not really. By the next meeting, it was quite certain that we needed to do something that would let everyone know we were still here. But what? The Penguin Plunge, that’s what.

What’s more attention grabbing than a bunch of crazy kids jumping into below-freezing water? We quickly were given flyers of registration and, after careful consideration, henceforth declared ourselves the Middle School Marvel Minions (catchy, I know).

Our theme was to dress as Marvel super heroes. It worked out quite well. After a quick registration, followed by the feeling of every pore of your body freezing and our heart stopping for five seconds, we had done what we’d hoped to do, and done it well.

Hey, wait a minute. With all these projects, and all these ideas, how do you even get them off the ground? Where do you get the money to do all this? Now, I feel proud to tell you that we are not just mooching off our school for all the funds we need. No, we do that ourselves. Everything from fundraisers to dances, we provide for ourselves.

However, we were now noticing that our dough was reaching an unsafe low level, and that was just unacceptable. We gathered around, and together we tried to brainstorm some money-hauling ideas. However, in the end, the spark of inspiration came not from the mind of a student but from the mind of our student council teacher, Mrs. Chris Holt.

Right at this time, we’re in the middle of February and approaching Valentine’s Day. So why not have a Valentine’s Day-themed fundraiser? Why not? Our idea was simple. A giant cookie sale. You see, we would hand out flyers to every one of our middle school students and explain what they were for. They just needed to write their name and the recipients name and attach a little message or note that would be sent along with the cookie to your “Valentine.”

Student council took care of the rest. For just a dollar a cookie, the idea caught on fast. But making all these cookies was no walk around the block for the student council. It took two whole weeks to get all the ingredients, bake all the dough, pound it out, cut out the shapes, bake the cookies, let them cool. We even had to ask for help from other classes, and with more than 700 kids to supply, we were working around the clock. Our efforts were not in vain, for we made more than $500 and had not a cookie to spare.

So now you’re caught up on what we’ve done and how we did it. But wait, what has the student council been stirring up now? I cannot express how excited I am to say that our next big idea for the student council is one big, super, ultra Whitefish Middle School K.B. Night in memory of former fifth-grade teacher Kerrie Byrne.

Influenced by the already popular Mully Night, our student council has been working around the clock finding what students would like to see at a middle school game night. And we’ve got some amazing events planned. We’ve got fast-paced dodge ball, nerve-wracking cake walk, line dancing, Ultimate Twister, giant Wii games, plenty of food, board games, co-op games and pie in the face.

This event will take place Friday, April 8, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the gym for all middle school students and family. It’s $5 for entry and $10 for a family pass. This is an opportunity that is not to be missed. I guarantee that this event will be worth your while.

Now you’re up to date on your local student council. From everything we do, to everything we think of, we promise that it will always benefit the school, the community and you. So take care and remember, we are student council, dream it, achieve it, share it.

Jessie Rathburn and Kate Ehrenberg are members of the Whitefish Middle School Student Council.