By: Maria Markham
Of The Gleaner

High School is known as some of the best years of the average person’s life. It is a time of creating many memories that will last a lifetime, growing in friendships and relationships with the people around, and is full of fun and memorable moments. But, there is one main event that the average high schooler can’t experience high school without: Homecoming.

Homecoming is an exciting time of the school year. The alumni return home, but the high school gets to have a week full of spirit, and most importantly, the students get a dance. The Homecoming dance gives girls a reason to be able to find the perfect dress and get their hair and nails done. Although this sounds like an all around exciting event, the chaos of finding a date is on every high school girl’s mind during this time. Some may not get asked, some go with their close friends, and some will get asked in the most creative ways. Here’s a few examples of some of our own Wahlert students asking their dates in creative ways:

The students were asked:
How did you ask him/her?
How did you get the idea?
Was the person you asked surprised?

Gunner Lange, ’14, and Lauren Palmer, ’14
Lange: “I put a sign on her car after school one day with a balloon, asking her to homecoming. This wasn’t the real way I was asking her, though. I just wanted her to think that. Later that evening,she came home from a cross country meet and I was in her driveway with flowers and I had a 10-foot sign behind me with lights that said “HC?” I thought of the idea myself.”
Palmer: “I wasn’t surprised that he was going to ask me that night because everyone was acting suspicious and Emily Moes, ’14, accidentally told me! But I didn’t expect him to ask me the way he did!”

Mallorey Leibold, ’14, and John Klauer, ’14
Leibold: “Well, I had Taylor Weber and Lauren Eddy steal his car from school with a spare key his mom gave me, and then I placed a “missing something?” poster where his car was parked with cones, they placed his car at his house during seventh period. I then left school and went to his house and placed a poster on his car that said “Now you have found your missing car, but you’re still missing a homecoming date! So…” Meanwhile, he was back at Wahlert looking for his car when Elizabeth and Caroline Ott handed him a note card with a riddle of “Where the majority of memories are made,” but the riddle had been word scrabbled. So then I had arranged Joe Beitzel to take him where ever he wanted to look for his car, and he of course got it on his first try. Then I came walking up the hill and asked if we should make it number three and he said yes!”
Klauer: “I wasn’t very surprised because she made it really obvious!”

John Chapman, ’15, and Melina Fortin, ’15
Chapman: “I faked breaking my leg and got a wheelchair from my dad and had my leg put in a cast. My sister had a sign in her locker that said “homecoming?” on it and I asked Melina to sign my cast and then Lindsey pulled the sign out of her locker. I got the idea from my dad.”
Fortin: “I was kind of surprised, I guess!”

Jessalyn Roling, ‘16, and Judd White, ‘16
Roling: “Well, I wasn’t able to go to homecoming because I had to go to a wedding. Last week my parents decided to let me go to homecoming, so I asked Judd White to go to homecoming and it was a surprise because he didn’t think I was able to go. When he came out of football practice I tossed him a football that said, “Can I still catch a date to homecoming?”
White: “Yes, I was very surprised!”