WJ Students get hyped for the 3 student DJ performances in their neon and sparkly attire. Photo Courtesy of Lifetouch Images.

For the past month, SGA and the Leadership class has been raising money through a variety of schoolwide events to donate to Pennies for Patients and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. On Friday night, February 23, SGA and Leadership hosted the annual GLO school dance where students go all out in neon and sparkle attire while students rave and have fun in the midst of listening to DJs play their music.

This year, there were three student DJs who performed over the course of the dance. All three students go to or have gone to WJ, including juniors Jacob Daley and Ethan Andrade as well as 2017 graduate Yahav Lachovizer. Many students prior to the dance were unsure of the type of music each DJ was going to perform but students ended up having a great time and enjoying the performances.

Senior CJ Maloney is a member of the leadership class at WJ and had a lot of positive feedback about the turnout of the event.

“I think Glo this year was the most successful it has ever been. We completely sold out of tickets and more people stayed longer because of our really good DJs. Also, having the dance in the small gym definitely contributed to the success because it was a new and better environment for this kind of dance,” Maloney said.

Sophomore Mia Dorrien attended the dance last year when it was held in only a half of the main gym so it was a different event for her to experience in addition to the change in DJs from last year.

“I expected it to be a fun night (just like last year) where I could see all my friends from different grades. I thought the DJs were good and choose good music to get everyone pumped up,” Dorrien said.

But for all the newcomers, whether they were freshman or other students who had never attended a Glo dance, it was a good first Glo dance to attend.

Freshman Madigan McConnell attended the dance for her first time and had similar expectations to those who also attended her freshman year Homecoming dance.

“My expectations of Glo was that it was going to be similar to Homecoming. I actually really didn’t enjoy Homecoming but the upperclassmen told me it would be much better so I decided to try it out anyway. I thought it went very well and I enjoyed the DJs, especially the first and second ones. They did really well,” McConnell said.

SGA Secretary senior Connor Phelps who is also a member of the Leadership class was a big part in planning this event and has a positive attitude towards this year’s Glo.

“I thought Glo was a lot of fun this year. All 3 performers did a great job of getting all the students excited and they kept it up the entire night. YJAYL (Yahav Lachovizer) started off the night well with some hits that everyone knew, Ethan Andrade kept up the excitement with some great songs and mixes in some of his own remixes which was fun, and Jacob Daley absolutely killed it as the main act. All three really did a great job getting the crowd hyped,” Phelps said.

Glo this year seemed to go flawlessly except for a few usual complaints about the temperature of the dance, but students found a way to meander around that with the use of the various tables and chairs to sit and rest at outside the auxiliary gym as well as walking to the water station around the corner from the gym.

“We raised about $13,000 for Pennies for Patients (just from Glo alone), which is the biggest reason this year was such a success,” Phelps said.

We will have to see if next year’s Glo will top this year’s outstanding event.