In collaboration with the Choir and Art Club, the Junior Council set up a Valentine’s Singing Gram event taking place in 20/20 classes during the week of Valentines.
The Junior Council President, Jayden Juan (℅ 2026), said that his council started planning this event back in December. The Junior Council was able to collaborate with the Choir Group to sing the chorus of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley and the Art Club made roses.
Students had three options to choose from: three dollars for a singing gram, five for a singing gram with a rose and nine dollars for three roses.
On February 11, in Ms. Le’s class, Ome Bilimon (℅ 2028) was sung to by Chorus students Shai Simbahon (℅ 2025), Dannah Rafaelle (℅ 2025) and Amber Suh (℅ 2026). The teacher was also given a rose.
The classroom was filled with laughter as the Chorus members sang in perfect harmony. Some of the students on Bilimon’s side of the room were attentive and enjoyed the event.
After the event, Bilimon said she felt “amazing!”
The success of this event involved lots of planning and organization from the groups involved.
The Junior Council started this event only involving a singing gram, but eventually evolved the idea to involve roses created by the art club due to the council’s connections with both groups.
“We never really have these grams where people sing or do a different activity than just giving treats,” Juan said. This unique event attracted participation from all grade levels and staff members.
A struggle that the Council faced were the technical difficulties on the Daily Bulletin. Juan said only two people signed up in the beginning due to the QR code not working. The council fixed this issue by creating a new bulletin with update information and a working QR code.
Juan said that the Junior Council is hoping to focus on the school at large rather than the Junior class. Juan said over text, “We’ve had more participants in general and even had greater memories with groups like the Special Ed. community during our Snow Day event in December, which was absolutely fantastic to see!”
The Junior Council has received support from their advisor as well.
Jennifer Nakamoto, the Junior Council advisor and freshman math teacher, has given the council advice regarding cost of the grams and profit that would be split among the groups. The Council has adjusted prices due to the time used to make the roses, which are made out of construction paper.
Nakamoto said that something that she would want the council to accomplish from this is skills to negotiate and coordinate planning for big events.
“The ability to plan their own event, to figure out cost for things, being able to coordinate planning…it takes a lot of work with their own schedules,” Nakamoto said.
Sean Willem Giron (℅ 2026), was invited to be a singer for the event, but could not participate due to being on a trip the week of. However, Giron was able to witness the making and planning.
Giron said that the selected singers, despite their busy schedules, would meet during lunch to practice. An initial challenge for this group was trouble scheduling practices due to the weeks prior being Black and Gold Week (Hall of Honor).
Although not being able to participate, Giron found that this event was interesting and fun for all groups, including students and staff, involved.
“This is just a fun event to just have love for everyone. For family, friends. February 14th is a good day to be reminded of that,” Giron said.
