This Saturday, Sept. 25, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Jesuit High School Sacramento will have their Homecoming Dance at the Haggin Oaks Golf Complex. The Homecoming Dance ends Spirit Week with a fiesta.

The theme for the dance is Mardi Gras. It was inspired by the recent Hurricane Ida in New Orleans and Jesuit’s call to help with disaster relief there. Student Activities Director Mr. Peter Ferrari gives his reasoning for the theme.

“Because of the hurricane that happened in New Orleans, we’re going to be donating to a disaster relief, so that’s kind of the reason for the theme,” Mr. Ferrari said. “Mardi Gras is associated with New Orleans and we wanna help donate to New Orleans disaster relief.”

The Student Council and homecoming planning team have been planning the dance to make sure everything works out well. Student Council Member Dylan McMains ’23 shares his experience of getting to put everything together.

“Planning for homecoming has been exciting and yet effort-filled,” Dylan said. “Yes, there have been some challenges in terms of the location and theme of the dance, and the things which follow those details, such as materials needed to fit the theme[; h]owever, we have successfully worked through these with helpful tips from more experienced Student Council members and clarification from adults such as Mr. Ferrari and Mr. Cargile about the location, theme, and materials for the dance.”

Student Council Member Jonah Reynolds ’24 also shares his ideas on how they came up with the theme.

“With something like homecoming, really anything can go,” Jonah said. “We just thought, ‘This is a good idea and it would be fun.’ Mardi Gras is basically a giant party, or at least that’s kind of the way we’re taking it. We’re kinda inspiring it off of Louisiana. That’s kinda like a giant party, and this is a giant party, since there haven’t been a lot of giant parties in a really long time.”

Originally the dance was scheduled for Friday, Sept. 24, but was pushed off to the day after.

“One of the reasons was that it made it easier,” Jonah said. “A lot of people had sports or activities Saturday morning and we wanted to get as many people to go to the dance as possible. Also, with the football game it worked better to have it all on the same day.”

The dance was also supposed to take place outdoors on campus but was moved to Haggin Oaks because of the better outside location. 

“For formal dance, we felt that the outdoor facilities on campus couldn’t accommodate us as well as Haggin Oaks could accommodate us,” Mr. Ferrari said. “For people to be in their dress of clothes and in their heels and footwear and dress shoes, we don’t really have a great outdoor space that can accommodate that and so we realized that Haggin Oaks might be a better fit for that.”

As usual, many students want to attend the dance and have bought their tickets. Student council member Nicholas Contreras ’24 talks about the large crowd.

“Tickets did sell out, so we are expecting a very large number of people,” Nick said.

After the successful Frosh/Soph Open Dance at Jesuit, Mr. Ferrari is optimistic about homecoming and how the dance will turn out.

“I think it’ll be great,” Mr. Ferrari said. “The open dance was awesome and it was so exciting to have that event and have so many students just enjoy themselves at a public event, and I think this dance will be just as great.”

Many are very excited and waiting for the anticipated event that is homecoming. Dylan expresses his thankfulness to those who planned the event, as well as his eagerness to see people at the dance.

“Thank you to the people on Student Council who have also been planning this, the whole Student Council, Mr. Ferrari, Mr. Cargile, and all of the people who have been and will be and are supporting this event, and for everyone attending to be prepared for a lot of Mardi Gras beads,” Dylan said.

Tickets are officially sold out. The dress code is formal attire and students should bring a mask with them. Students must also bring their current student ID’s with them to get into the dance.