The concept originated in the Li’l Abner comic strip created by Al Capp, in which unmarried women chased bachelor’s to find a husband. The comic sparked a trend, and by 1939, just two years after the concept was created, more than 200 colleges were hosting events similar that of Sadie Hawkins.
For the first time in several years, Gulf Breeze High School held its own Sadie Hawkins dance as a fundraiser for the Class of 2027’s gift. The idea was re-introduced by student Claire Pollitt and backed by the senior class after hearing about the concept from other schools.
Mrs. Bell, who is the advisor for SGA, comments on their preparations for the event, “We’ve been doing a lot. We have to organize the dance and see who wants to hold it. We did Homecoming at the school and the students wanted to think of something in a better location that makes more people want to attend since it’ll be outside of school. So, I started asking around and Highpoint offered to give us the venue for free. Then we started figuring out which decorations looked best, and we decided with a Valentine’s Day theme since that’s the point of Sadie Hawkins.”
Since it’s been some time since the last dance an important part of its campaign lied in SGA’s marketing as Bell stated, “We’ve been trying to get on social media, since now social media presence is such an important thing here, so were posting on many different school accounts each day. During lunch we would make announcements and do flash-sales where tickets were buy one get one free. We also wanted to get parents involved, and we sent flyers out and hung some around the school.”
The student’s main goal is to make this dance a recurring event as Bell expressed, “I hope we can make this an annual thing. This is my first year doing SGA and you never really know what’s going to be hit-or-miss especially since Prom is in May. Maybe this will be something the students will really like, so we’ll just have to see how everything plays out.”
Like any event, the dance comes with challenges, “…there’s a lot that goes behind the scenes that students don’t know about. Everything new has to be approved by the school board and it’s a lengthy process, you never really know how it’s going to be perceived. We’re making sure we’re crossing our T’s and dotting our I’s to make sure everything goes smoothly, but most of the work is done by our SGA students. They’re excited to sponsor something like this especially since activities rarely happen in the winter. “
Sadie Hawkins gives students another chance to connect and continues to highlight SGA’s efforts to bring the community together. Hopefully, in years to come, more past traditions continue to be brought to life and even more continue to be created.