By Emily Vossen — Winter Formal is usually held every year at the high school after winter break. Due to the lack of attendance last year, the dance is cancelled this year.

“Last year not many people attended the dance and the school lost money,” junior class Communications Officer, Kyle Monnot said.

Students have given the dance the reputation as “lame” and had complained it is too soon after winter break.

Junior Madison Dye went to Winter Formal her freshman year, but she did not go her sophomore year. She believes it was after winter break.

“It was too close to after Christmas and I didn’t have the extra money to go get a dress after buying Christmas presents,” Dye said.

Last year, student council did all they could to get people to go by having a unique fire and ice theme and decorations and even changed the name to Winter Turnabout to make the dance sound new and exciting.

Executive President of student council, Brooklyn McDaniels, was disappointed there was not going to be a Winter Formal.

“The dance hurt student council more in costs than it helped, which was extremely unfortunate because it was one of the most unique themes and well decorated dances that GlenOak’s ever seen,” McDaniels said.

The final decision of cancelling the dance was made by the executive student council board and their advisers. There could be a chance the dance could he held again next year.

“There is great possibility that there could be a Winter Formal next year if students begin to show interest and plan to attend,” McDaniels said. “Ultimately, that will be up to next year’s board and advisers.”

There was a chance there would be a school wide fashion show in place of Winter Formal this year but due to conflicting schedules it was unable to happen. Instead, student council planned a different event.

“We have taken on some minor events as well as the brand new Jump-A-Thon to fill up the otherwise Winter Formal allotted time frame,” McDaniels said.

The Jump-A-Thon, which took place on Feb. 15, is an event to help the American Heart Association to get schools involved in raising donations and to spread awareness around the community.

Junior class secretary, Hope Wagner, is involved with this project and is enjoying doing her part for the Jump-A-Thon.

“My job for the Jump-A-Thon was to help out with t-shirt sales and games that helped raise money for the American Heart Association,” Wagner said. “On the Jump-A-Thon day I helped run the event and got some cross country girls together to participate and help raise awareness.”

Student council raised a total of $765 for American Heart Association by getting students involved during lunch by playing games like basketball and hula-hooping to encourage student to come to the Jump-A-Thon.

“The lunchroom games were designed to raise money and get the student excited about this project,” Wagner said. “We want everyone to get involved.”

Student council was dedicated to the cause and worked all they could to reach their goal in help their community.

“Our overall goal is to donate as much money as we can to the American Heart Association,” Monnot said.

This was student council’s first year in throwing the Jump-A-Thon and hopes to do this event next year.

“We would love to continue this fund raiser and helping the community,” Wagner said.

Individual sports teams from the school participated, such as girls’ soccer, girls’ cross country and boys soccer, who raised the most in donations.

[Updated Aug. 7, 2017: This article has been reformatted for consistency.]