Parkway North, Hazelwood West, Pattonville Organize Dance For Special Needs Students

Despite our rivalries on the field, Parkway North, Pattonville, and Hazelwood West all came together to better the community by hosting “A Night to Shine,”  a dance for special needs students, at Pattonville High School on Friday, Feb. 3.

The dance was originally an event that Pattonville’s STUCO planned to host themselves, but later realized that they would need help if it was going to go off without a hitch, so they asked other schools’ student councils to get involved.

“[Pattonville’s STUCO] knew that they couldn’t do it on their own because it’s kind of a big undertaking when you have a student population that has a lot of physical needs,” said Parkway North’s STUCO advisor Bob McKitrick.

When reaching out to schools to help them put on this event, North and Hazelwood West were obvious choices because all three councils have worked together before.

“They asked North and Hazelwood West because our student councils collaborate together on other projects, so they asked us to take an aspect of [the dance] and run it,” said McKitrick.

Planning for the dance began in October. The three councils had meetings where they would discuss the details of the event such as games played and activities the students could do while they were there. On the day of the dance, decorating and preparations for the night took about two hours.

“After school at around three o’clock, we got all of our materials together. We went over to Pattonville at around 3:30 p.m. and we started setting up our craft booth. Then at around 5:00 p.m., we went around and made sure that Pattonville and Hazelwood didn’t need help, and then at 5:30 p.m. doors open and we were busy from around 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.,” said McKitrick.

Once the dance started, students were paired with buddies, who they would hang out with and do various activities. North’s crafts consisted of making snow cones out of cotton balls and making DUM-DUM lollipop trees.

“Not as many people came to [our table] as those who signed up, but the students who did come to our table had a great time,” said freshman treasurer Hannah Schaff.

By the end of the night, there was a tally of 80 special needs students who attended the dance, with the majority of students coming from Pattonville; six students from North were in attendance as well. With the outcome of the dance, all three schools plan on making it a recurring event.

“This will be an annual event. All of the schools are going to take turns hosting it, so we don’t know if it’s going to be North next year or Hazelwood West, but we will find out in the coming weeks which school it will be,” said McKitrick.

In addition to the success of the event and the opportunity for all three schools to work together, the main goal of the night was achieved.

“This type of event is important because students in the special school district sometimes don’t get to participate in school activities such as a dance, or don’t feel very comfortable going, so it is nice to do something that they enjoy,” said Schaff.

by Roshae Hemmings, assistant editor-in-chief