As Valentine’s Day approached, numerous clubs such as the HSSC and Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) prepared events for the student body to enjoy. While the student council arranged a platform for students to express their love through Valentine-O-Grams, RAK planned numerous projects to exhibit in their annual RAK week, which took place the week of Valentine’s Day.
In getting ready for the RAK week that took place on Feb. 12 to Feb.14, RAK prepared several mini projects. For example, the club hung valentine-themed decorations including balloons around the school, and collaborated with Glee Club. For the singing telegrams, which RAK collaborated with Glee Club, people had to file an order through an online Google form for a song at one of the given times at a location of their choosing, and then the Telegram team met them at that time to surprise the lucky person with a song.
“With all of our projects, RAK wants to develop a stronger sense of community in our school, and we want to break up the monotony of everyday life with fun events,” said Eddie Ko (11), an executive member of RAK. “We’re trying to move toward more intimate, personal interactions with people this semester because last semester we did a lot of projects geared mainly towards opening up the student body. During RAK week and throughout the semester, we would like to see our impact reach students on a more personal level.”
On the other hand, HSSC offered an opportunity for students to send a sweet message to a friend or their loved one in the form of Valentine-O-Grams. After a student filled out the order request, a candy gram was delivered to their person of choice on either the day before or the day of Valentine’s Day.
“When the idea was first brought up, most of the councils were a bit skeptical due to the fact that we made a scarce attempt at conducting a similar system of valentine-o-grams last year as well, but not many customers showed up in the end so the plan practically backfired,” said Jenny Oh, HSSC treasurer. “However, we have changed our strategy this year and have been trying to reach out to more people to let the entire student body know that the event itself exists in the first place. I hope it succeeds this year because the goody bags are so inexpensive, and honestly Valentine’s Day needs to be celebrated more at our school. It’s so heartwarming to watch friends and classmates give one another treats to express their feelings.”
With the effort of both HSSC and RAK in promoting Valentine’s Day by providing various methods for students to express their love, the holiday gained more traction this year. Whether a student is in a relationship or not, they were able to use this time with their friends.