RALLY READY: Friends Negranza, Grabowski bring Winterfest to life
By GUADALUPE ENRIQUEZ
The Tower
Winterfest week is coming up, and the bow atop “Buffchella” is the rally which will take place on Friday, Feb. 3.
The rally commissioners, Ava Negranza and Danielle Grabowski, have been preparing for Winterfest and its Coachella-inspired events for two months. They have been working closely with their groups to prepare for all the elements that go into the actual rally.
Grabowski and Negranza work together to make the rallies come to life.
It isn’t an easy feat, as they have to assign their group tasks to ensure the rally will be successful. Tasks for “Buffchella” include class posters, contacting photographers, writing the script, making the balloon arch, coming up with a game, making the crowns and sashes for the nominees, decorating the gym, and promoting the rally itself.
For Winterfest, each class has a different music genre theme: Seniors are performers; juniors are rock-and-roll; sophomores are R&B; and freshmen are hippies/indie.
Although there are so many elements they need to oversee, it’s something they like to do as they both signed up for this position last school year.
“Being rally commissioners was something we both wanted to do. I think she (Leadership advisor Stephanie Hjelmstad) chose us specifically because Danielle and I have been friends for a super long time,” revealed Negranza. “We already have a really good connection already. We get to work as best friends all the time, so it just makes things better and we work adhesively better.”
The script takes the longest since it’s the main part of the rally.
“We have to write the script which takes the most time, and there is a set of guidelines that we have to go through,” Grabowski said. “Like each rally there’s things we have to do like for Winterfest there’s crowning. … We also have to make sure that all the classes have their class posters done so they can hang them up in their section. We have to get all the stuff together like if there’s games or something we have to put them all in a tub. We just have to make sure we have all the decorations ready.”
With an event so big, there is no doubt that there will be stress. When asked to rank the stress that comes with the planning for the Winterfest rally, Grabowski said, “We say it’s an 8 or 9.”
Negranza says that stress and time play together in a funny way.
“When you walk in the day of the rally, the gym is bare. There’s nothing and no action going on and no music,” Negranza said. “And working together to set things up, it feels like two minutes and then everyone is already in there, there’s music playing, and you can hear people talking. It’s like 3-2-1 and you’re already holding the microphone.”
Grabowski then continued to say, from first-hand experience, how unreal the feeling can be while also talking about the little time they have throughout the day to prepare the gym for the rally.
Manteca High rally commissioners Ava Negranza (left) and Danielle Grabowski have leaned on their friendship to get them through the stress of planning and hosting a schoolwide rally. (Alyssa Fuentes)
“I think it’s just when you get in the gym and everything needs to be done and we only have an hour since it’s rally schedule, our class periods are shorter, and you have very little time,” explained Grabowski. “There’s nothing more nerve wracking than when school is out, and the students are filling in the gym and you’re going over your script for the last couple times. So, there’s nothing more nerve wracking than seeing the people you’re going to talk in front of.”
Negranza remembers her and Grabowski’s first experience as rally commissioners.
“There were tears between the both of us, and even the second one, we were still very stressed out,” Negranza said. “Obviously a huge event like this, you’re going to be stressed out. But the first couple rallies, we were crying.”
“There are so many obstacles that you wouldn’t even think of that would go into a rally. We had microphone issues. At the first rally, we had problems with who was doing what since we didn’t delegate the duties to the people in our group very well. We had a lot of issues during the rally that we didn’t practice. But I think this one is going to go pretty well since we’re used to it now.”
Their main inspiration, surprisingly, is social media. With this new generation, it’s essential to keep up with the trends and have students feel drawn to the rally so they will participate.
“Our biggest inspiration was TikTok. The two of us resort to TikTok for a lot of things like games and ideas for decorations,” revealed Negranza. “It’s important to adjust the rally ideas to what our generation is already into. If you are going to do something so out of date and out of time, then no one is going to participate, and no one will be interested.”
The exciting game that will be played during the rally will be musical chairs, but with a special twist.
“Since Winterfest is based on the basketball game at the end of the week, which is the hugest part, we’re doing regular musical chairs but we’re taking six people from the basketball team and when they’re walking around the chairs, they will be dribbling a basketball,” Negranza said. “Then when the music stops, their job is to go to the closest court and they have to make a 3-pointer. If they make it, they go back to a chair.”