Student Government Pulls Off Successful Homecoming
Last weekend’s Homecoming Day festivities at Huntington High School were staged by the student government, which is taking a well-deserved bow for its Herculean efforts.
Teachers Fred Bisogno and Anthony Troffa serve as faculty advisors to the school-wide student government organization. The duo, along with a group of dedicated teenagers, was responsible for putting in motion the events that so many in the community found enjoyable.
There are separate class level advisors and officers in place and they also contributed long hours to last weekend’s activities and helped make the week and weekend a success.
“Student government is responsible for the entire weekend from float night to the dance,” Mr. Troffa said. “There are hours upon hours spent planning, shopping for decorations, ordering food and drinks and flowers and picking all the items up and setting things up such as buckets of ice and soda and pizza that is all paid for from our student government account.”
The process of selecting the Homecoming king and queen was time consuming in and of itself. Nominating ballots were circulated and the votes of hundreds of students had to be tabulated to generate the slate of finalists. Then another round of balloting was held and still more votes needed to be counted to determine who would be crowned at halftime of Saturday’s football game.
“This year's Homecoming was a huge success,” said senior Alex Castillo, president of the school-wide student government. “From float night to the parade to the game to the dance, everything went smoothly and everyone had a blast. Every member of the student government helped tremendously from start to finish and I am extremely proud of what our group did this weekend.”
Playing a key role in the Homecoming festivities were senior class advisors Gina Colica and Victoria Lombardi, junior class advisor Patricia Dillon sophomore class advisors Camille Tedeschi and Erik Bruckbauer and freshman class advisors Lauren Baglivi and Kenneth Donovan.
There is plenty of behind the scenes work that occurs in the run-up to Homecoming week and weekend. There’s booking the DJ for the Saturday night dance in the school gym, developing the annual theme, planning and organizing the parade through the village and up New York Avenue, ordering food and refreshments for Friday’s float night, judging the floats, creating a script for the halftime ceremonies, including profiles of each float that are read to the crowd over the public address system.
Much of the work associated with Homecoming falls to the student government officers. They are at the high school early Saturday morning to judge the floats and later help breakdown the floats late Saturday; they take photos of all the Homecoming events to decorate bulletin boards in the high school and they generally execute all aspects of the entire weekend.
“Many thanks to the advisors for the student government, Mr. Bisogno and Mr. Troffa for coordinating everything from the state and local permits to the timing of the parade and the execution of the dance,” Principal Carmela Leonardi said. “Lots of recognition is owed to the grade advisors, the parents and the students who worked so hard in designing and creating each float.”
Dr. Leonardi and Assistant Principal Brenden Cusack were among the hundreds of marchers in the parade. Superintendent James W. Polansky and his senior staff members and Huntington School Board President Emily Rogan and her fellow trustees were also among the participants.
“Mr. Cusack and I are very grateful to our superintendent, Mr. Polansky for supporting all our efforts and for generating such participation during the parade,” Dr. Leonardi said.
Friday afternoon’s pep rally was a typically high energy affair. Hundreds of students turned out for float night Friday evening. The Saturday parade was extremely well-attended and a crowd of 1,700 came to Blue Devil Field for the afternoon football game.
“The gorgeous weather set the stage for a very successful Homecoming weekend,” Dr. Leonardi said. “It began with the incredible pep rally that showed off to the best advantage the supportive and respectful behavior of team members and audience alike. The parade added to the climate of celebration and the victorious game kept us all in suspense.”
“The Class of 2016 worked very hard on our float, working long hours folding and making flowers for it,” said Heather Bast, vice-president of the sophomore class. “Our whole class participated in our float.”
“Our planning for Homecoming actually begins in May,” Mr. Bisogno said. “The student government members begin planning their themes and ordering paper for the floats. Over the summer we work on securing parade permits, not only from the town, but also from New York State, which is an arduous task in itself. We could not do it without the help of Ms. [Eileen] DeAngelis. Ms. [Donna] Cama, and Ms. [Frances] Camgemi in the main office. These ladies really are the backbone to a lot of the Homecoming success. We meet with students over the summer to distribute paper for the floats and to answer any of the concerns they may have about building the floats.”
Final planning for the event begins in early September. “We are in full force securing a DJ [for the dance] and flowers, ordering 35 pizzas for float night along with several dozen cases of soda for refreshments for both float night and the dance,” Mr. Bisogno said. “Once the parade is over, students quickly decorate the gym for the dance and then race to the field for the game and to organize the homecoming court for halftime festivities. After the dance, students help to clean-up and secure student government property and decorations.”
The 2013/14 student officers include:
Student Council: Alex Castillo (president), Cynthia Gowani (vice-president), Gabriella Madriota (recording secretary), Ryan Newell (treasurer), Donovan Richardson (corresponding secretary), Kira Bergman (historian).
Class of 2014: Zachary Burden (president), Jeremy Gelb (vice-president), Emma Hughes (recording secretary), Julie Gray (treasurer), Katherine Gerdes (corresponding secretary), Sarah Mosden (historian).
Class of 2015: Joe Saginaw (president), Liz Corrao (vice-president), Justin Loturco (treasurer), Lan Ziegler (corresponding secretary), Mary Sheehan (historian), Charles Beers (administrative assistant).
Class of 2016: Alexandra Berwick (president), Heather Bast (vice-president), Katie Reilly (recording secretary), Daniel Mollitor (treasurer), Kelly Palladino (corresponding secretary), Holly LoTurco (historian).
Class of 2017: Kayla Ryan (president), Jack Glicker (vice-president), Theresa Moreno (recording secretary), Julia Engle (treasurer), Keegan Dunne (corresponding secretary), Emma Pipolo (historian).
Many pieces of the Homecoming puzzle must be put in place to insure a happy and successful event, including establishing the parade line-up of participating schools and organizations and double-counting ballots cast through multiple rounds of voting for king and queen awards.
“I am so proud of my classmates and all the other classes for making Homecoming such a great event this year,” Class of 2015 President Joe Saginaw said. “Student government is a great organization and I am proud of everyone and thankful for the work they have put in over the past month or so to make this happen.”
“I had a lot of fun at float night,” Class of 2017 Treasurer Julia Engle said. “Even though the ninth grade float wasn’t as good as all the others, we still enjoyed making it and we will learn from our mistakes and have a better float next year.”
While the student government and class advisors perform their fair share of work, students are expected to handle a significant amount of responsibilities themselves. This year’s set of officers and many other high school students all pitched in to help, just like those of past years.
“These kids always rise to the challenge to pull off a successful weekend,” Mr. Bisogno said. “It is amazing to see young people act accountable and responsible to all of the obligations necessary to make these events happen.”
The class faculty advisors embrace their roles and cherish their involvement with not only the elected student officers, but the general student body, too.
“I have attended float night every year since I started working at the high school in 2002,” Ms. Tedeschi said. “I served as a chaperone for many years and since 2006 have been in attendance as an advisor. I was the advisor for the class of 2009, 2012 and currently 2016 along with Erik Bruckbauer. We make a great team and have the best time together with the kids. This year we have some of the best officers. They are hardworking, friendly, fun and determined to be successful. At this year’s Homecoming I had a lot of fun working with these kids and my co-advisor. It is a long night and weekend, but the kids make it worthwhile. The Class of 2016 officers worked hard since August and created a wonderful float on Mexico that came in second place. Overall, I think Homecoming was a huge success. The Huntington staff, students and community come together each year and it is nice to see the passion each person has for their town and school.”