A night of dancing, music, and something new for everyone at Shaler Area High School.

This year, the high school will be hosting the first ever “Spring Fling” in place of the traditional junior class fundraiser, the Sadie Hawkins Dance.

“Normally we’re able to have Sadies, which happens in early February but due to the ongoing pandemic we couldn’t have anyone in the cafeteria in a confined space, so the juniors came up with a great way to have an outside dance later in the season to have one dance for Shaler Area High School students to end the school year,” Activities Director Mrs. Mindy Thiel said.

It’s another opportunity for students to come together for a night, dressing fancy and hanging with their friends, dancing the night away.

These unprecedented conditions would not stop the juniors from getting their integral fundraiser in, though, as the new dance will be on Saturday May 7. Inspired by this year’s outdoor homecoming dance, the Spring Fling will happen outside on the turf at Biles Field. It is a semi-formal dance, and is themed, “A Night in the Tropics”.

“The juniors have a couple different ideas planned. They definitely want all the snacks we had before, they want to have the games from before, we might add some in as well, and they’re also looking into getting a snow cone booth to come because of the dance theme,” Mrs. Thiel said.

As May is a busy time for students, with the music department trip, AP exams, and final exams, trying to fit in another event was definitely harder than normal. Despite that, the junior class wanted to go out with one last event for everyone before the stress of the end of the year kicked into high gear. While this new dance will be memorable, it does not look like it will happen again in future years.

“I would like to go back to doing a Sadies dance. I think the winters tend to be long for us, and we just need something to break up the monotony of winter. It will be nice to bring that back just to give us something to do when it’s freezing outside, getting everyone together versus the spring when it’s busy,” Mrs. Thiel said.

As the date for the dance is quickly approaching, make sure to buy tickets in the Activities Office for this special event and dance the night away with your friends.