On Dec. 13, Miami Palmetto Senior High dimmed the lights and decked out the gym for the first annual Snowbash. Hosted by Key Club, this event aimed to bring together the student body, as well as raise money for the club. The gym was almost unrecognizable, with blasting music, flashing lights and students dressed out in white clothing.
“Snow Bash is this winter party that we’re holding at the gym in order to fundraise for our club, Key Club, to go to DCON, which is this workshop for basically all the key clubs in Florida State,” junior and Key Club President Claudia Vides-Olivencia said.
As is the purpose of many parties, Vides-Olivencia hoped that a reason people would attend would be to spend time with friends, take a break from school and be able to wind down. As winter break was only one week away from the event, it allowed for a chance for students and faculty alike to soak in that fact, and get excited over their upcoming hiatus from school.
Every member of Key Club helped out in planning the event, whether setting up decorations, advertising to other students or in charge, ensuring that everything went according to plan. Freshman and Key Club Public Relations Advisor Alessandra Panosso played a big role in the advertisement and setup for Snowbash.
“I was just mainly helping out the webmaster, Savannah Sanin. She had the idea of this old high school-style dance hosted by Palmetto. My job was really to advertise and promote it, and I’m still doing that now, to kind of show the school how great it turned out,” Panosso said.
For Panosso, the night could not have gone better. Witnessing over 200 students celebrating the winter season in the gym was something to behold, and she was thrilled with how well the event turned out.
“It was such an amazing, amazing night. So many students came, 200 tickets were bought. It was a beautiful event,” Panosso said. “Rho Kappa also did their share of creating an extra, fun event apart from Key Club, but combined, it was just a beautiful collaborative event between Key Club and Palmetto High.”
Rho Kappa, also known as the Social Studies Honor Society, played a big role in the preparations and setup for Snowbash. They had booths with activities for attendees, which helped ease some of the stress from Key Club leadership.
“Rho Kappa brought some light up paint, since the theme was kind of in the dark, and there were lights and [the paint] would light up,” Panosso said. “But Key Club was the main host of aspects like concessions, lighting, DJing and all that.”
Since this is MPSH’s first year of Snowbash, its success has led many to wish for it to become an annual tradition. The idea of the traditional gym dance is one that many experienced in elementary and middle school, but in high school, it is much less common due to events like homecoming and prom.
“I hope to continue this throughout my three more years at Palmetto, and I’m so proud of how the first event came out this year. I know that it will continue to grow and expand to more Miami Dade public school students, since it was available to private school, public school and home school,” Panosso said. “I hope to expand it and to make it an even bigger and better event next year.”
Snowbash truly brought back the nostalgia of the gym dances from popular media, found in movies such as West Side Story. While there was no spontaneous breaking out in song and dance, one thing is for sure: thanks to all of the preparation by Vides-Olivencia, Panosso and the rest of Key Club, Snowbash was a night to remember and a hopeful tradition that allowed students to cool down before the excitement of winter break.
