Winter Formal sets a new record in ticket sales

February 4, 2016

2016 Winter Formal Court: (left to right) **Cassidy Nguyen (Fr.), Anya Hwang (So.), Vicki Chen (Jr.) , Arni Daroy (Sr.) , Justin Wu (Sr.) , Dillon Sun (Sr.) , Kevin Yahampath (So.)** and Douglas Sun (Fr.). (Courtesy of Jason Thai)

JANE HAGEN
Copy Editor
Junior Classical League (JCL) sold a record breaking 902 Winter Formal tickets this year, surpassing last year’s record of 622 tickets.
JCL has hosted Winter Formal at UHS for eight years and has had increasing success in the past two years, breaking previous records each time.
Winter Formal is one of the primary sources of JCL’s funds. Club advisor Mr. Josh Davis (World Language Dept.) estimates that there is a $5-8 profit per Winter Formal ticket depending on when the ticket is bought.
JCL is a national level academic service club that supports the UHS Latin program, and it has over 300 members at UHS alone. Most of JCL funds go to scholarships for members of JCL and cover costs for students who cannot afford to pay for related purchases, such as the tickets ($100) for JCL state conventions. Another portion of the funds are donated to charity, other UHS clubs, the UHS library and gym.
Other sources of income for JCL include Southern California Regional Amici Madness (SCRAM) and the JCL state convention, both hosted by UHS JCL every few years.
Preparations for Winter Formal begin at the start of the school year, usually after homecoming. The theme for the dance is often movie related. This year’s was based on the movie “Back to the Future,” in honor of the 1989 sequel’s depiction of a futuristic 2015; the dance was advertised as “Back to the Formal.” JCL was also able to secure The Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda as the venue after booking it two years in advance.
Each year, JCL board creates clues that lead to tokens that, if found, give a Winter Formal ticket-buyer a discount.
“It was so thrilling watching people solve the clues, a little step at a time,” said JCL consul Alex Chung (Jr.). “Also, I couldn’t be more proud of JCL for helping make Winter Formal a blast this year, because our legionaries make the dance truly spectacular.”
Erica Zhong (Sr.), who was able to solve the last and most difficult clue, which gave her a free ticket, said, “The clues were all extremely hard to solve. I didn’t start getting it until the fifth hint. James Gui (Sr.) is exceptional at writing the clues, so they seemed almost impossible, but I also had a lot of fun working through them.”
Every year, a Winter Formal Court is nominated through an online process. The freshman, sophomore and junior princesses and princes were voted for online and announced at the dance.
Voting for seniors was done at the dance. Each finalist had a vase with his or her name on it, into which students dropped the two beads they were given to cast their votes for Queen and King. This year’s Queen and King were Arni Daroy (Sr.) and Justin Wu (Sr.). The Princesses and Princes were Vicki Chen (Jr.), Dillon Sun (Jr.), Anya Hwang (So.), Kevin Yahampath (So.), Cassidy Nguyen (Fr.) and Douglas Sun (Fr.).

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