“Oh, its a poster making class. They don’t really do anything in that class.” Every year, the Leadership classes are bashed by students not in the class. No one realizes how much is accomplished by the leadership and Associated Student Body members and their work to bring the students together as a community to help them enjoy their high school years.

Leadership and ASB members hope to make every student feel welcome. One of their specific focuses is to make the school have a more positive feel when people walk through the doors and to make the school feel like more of a community. Members of leadership and ASB smile and say “hi” to whomever they can in the halls to try to help them feel more welcome. The student members specifically want other students to feel like a part of school by participating in school dances, sports, activities, and fundraisers. ASB and leadership members promote those school activities, and try to involve as many students as they can.

For example, each week on Friday, all of the students in leadership and ASB wear spirit shirts to support the school. This shows how much they care about the school and that they encourage others to do the same. These shirts are made available to all students at WLHS.

Weeks of planning, preparation and work go into every event leadership and ASB members put together. A few weeks before Homecoming, the students started working on planning out the decorations; the week prior to Homecoming was spent making the decorations. Their hope was to give students something they will remember and enjoy being part of.

The weekend before Homecoming, both leadership classes and ASB spent their time at the school. On Saturday, all of the students spent between three and eight hours at the school decorating the porches. Some of the students even came back on Sunday to check on the decorations.

ASB is solely responsible for Survivor Week, a school event many students looks forward to. Before Survivor Week starts each year, the ASB and leadership members are responsible for making decorations and setting up the Forum for the tribal council. The decorations take at least two weeks to complete, even with using leftover decorations from previous years.

Fundraisers are organized and carried out by the leadership and ASB student members. Students put hours of work each week into the fundraisers not only in school, but out of school as well. The money raised by these projects goes straight into the ASB funds. These funds are then used to buy things for the school and the entire student body such as spirit shirts and to provide music for the dances.

The Donkey Basketball fundraiser was voted on in the middle of December. Leadership I divided into groups the week before winter break, each with a certain job they need to accomplish. The groups were divided into school promotion, middle school and elementary school involvement and business sponsors.

A lot of the work students in Leadership and ASB do often goes unnoticed. Students go to school events, such as the dances and fundraisers, and don’t realize how much work and time goes into putting on these events by leadership and ASB. Next time you attend a school event, notice the event and the decorations, put together and organized by leadership and ASB. Appreciate the time and effort the members put into these events. Maybe if you see an ASB or leadership member, walk up and thank them for everything they do for the school and the students.