Luverne High School will celebrate its first-ever Snow Week next week, complete with royalty, special dress-up days and a dance.
“It’s something different to break up the long winter,” said Mark Lundgren, student council adviser.
He said student leaders in grades 9-12 have taken the lead on ideas and planning for the event after meeting with student council members in Adrian, where Snow Week has been celebrated for years.
Dylan Thorson is president of Luverne’s junior class and is one of several LHS students working on Snow Week in Luverne.
“We thought it would be good to have another fun week like homecoming, but we didn’t want another homecoming that involved all the same students,” Thorson said.
What sets Snow Week apart from homecoming, he said, is that student royalty are seniors selected by teachers based on academic success, leadership and involvement in school and community.
“It was the students’ idea to have teachers pick the royalty,” Thorson said. “A lot of times students are recognized at the peer level, but this is about how they work with their superiors and teachers at school.”
The first round of ballots was distributed two weeks ago, and the list was narrowed down this week with the final candidates announced Tuesday.
Luverne’s first-ever Snow Week king and queen will be crowned in coronation exercises during homeroom on Tuesday.
According to Lundgren, 49 students received votes, and the top four vote-getters were notified Tuesday.
Queen candidates are Ryleigh Beers, Hannah Hoogland, Kaitlyn Roberts and Susan Thompson. King candidates are Cole Bosch, Adam Fodness, Derek Krueger and Erik Wohnoutka.
Mostly, Thorson said, Snow Week is about having fun.
“As we get into this wintery part of the year, it gets kind of boring … I’m looking forward to it being a fun week for the students,” he said.
Dress-up days for Snow Week are:
•Monday, College Day
•Tuesday, Summer Day
•Wednesday, Ugly Sweater/Winter Wear Day
•Thursday, Decades Day
•Friday, Class Color Day (Seniors wear black, juniors wear red, sophomores wear white and freshmen wear blue.)
Snow Week concludes with a dance Friday night.
Student leaders working on Snow Week include senior class officers and class presidents.
The senior class president is Cole Bosch, vice president is Susan Thompson, secretary is Jacob Van Santen and treasurer is Erik Wohnoutka.
Junior class president is Dylan Thorson (Knute Oldre is vice president). Sophomore president is Emma Verbrugge and freshman president is Jadyn Anderson.