A parent of a dancer sports their child’s jersey as they help out at the concession stand. Photo courtesy of Rachelle Chawke.by Celine Hoang, Social Media Manager & Laura Le, Staff Writer
This Sunday, Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) will be hosting the United Spirit Association (USA) Southern California State Dance Classic. There will be 19 high schools from all around Southern California coming to compete. The schools will be coming from as far south as San Diego County and as far north as Ventura County.
FVHS has hosted this competition for the past several years. “The competition is a chance to promote FVHS and its beautiful campus. Schools also like to come to Orange County to enjoy its amenities, such as Disneyland and the beach during the rest of the weekend,” said FVHS Dance Team Booster President Rachelle Chawke.
The process behind hosting the dance competition started 10 months ago when the FVHS Dance Booster Club signed a contract with the USA company and received a date for the competition. Two months ago, parents of the dancers reached out to local businesses and asked for their donations in stocking the concession stand and providing gift cards to pay for food and paper products.
Most of the preparation behind hosting the competition comes from the families of the dancers who volunteer their time to help out.
“We also asked all dance team families to volunteer their time at the concession stand, either selling or cooking the food,” said Chawke.
Hosting a competition is relatively inexpensive, as USA also pays the dance team to host the competition and the only expense the dance team makes is stocking the concession stand. However, hosting a competition takes a lot of effort because there is so much to be done.
The boosters have to organize all of the volunteers, make sure there is enough food and supplies and contact stores many times to obtain donations. They also have to decide on the concession stand menu and prices.
However, most of the tasks can only be done ten days before the competition, such as poster making. In addition, perishable foods that the team buys can only be purchased a few days in advance.
The boosters are responsible for running the concession stand which sells breakfast, lunch and dinner. They start setting up at 6:00 a.m. and do not finish until 10:00 p.m. The dance team members are responsible for transporting the judges scores to the tabulation room, keeping the campus clean and helping out at the concession stand.
Although assembling dance competitions take a lot of time and effort, all of the dance team and booster club’s hard work pays off during the competition.
