For my senior capstone, Jordan Williams and I decided to pair up and collaborate on something we both have a passion for; sports. Since our school has incorporated so many different sports teams over the past four years, we feel sa though sports should be something we honor more broadly this year. We wanted to incorporate all of the student athletes and appreciate them more for our final year, here at SLA. We figured that to show appreciation to our athletes and coaches, we should create a sports ceremony in honor of them. The process for our sports ceremony has came a very long way. In the beginning, in September, we fully planned on creating a full out banquet for the athletes. We first began by figuring out any kind of fundraising we could do, but in the end we got none of that done. We didn’t fundraise at all. In order for our banquet to be up to par, we would’ve needed to pay for tables, chairs, catering, refreshments, awards and invitations. By the time March came around, we obviously knew from there on out a banquet wasn’t going to be the way to go if we wanted to get our capstone done on time. Instead of rushing around to do a horrible job, we decided to make a ceremony.My partner and I have been on a very up and down journey to get our capstone figured out and finalized. Our final product is going to be SLA@Beeber’s first sports ceremony. Our ceremony will be held on June 2nd at 4 o’clock in the Beeber auditorium. And, Jordan and I will be hosting this event. I learned everything from time management, organization, patience, etc. My capstone story is really simple but we came along way from where we begun. I feel like this process has made me mature because we did a lot on our own and didn’t have much guidance throughout. We wanted to take matters into our own hands and I feel like that is the best decision we made through everything.
Bibliography:
National, Hazeltine. "Making Your High School Sports Banquet Memorable." Hazeltine National Golf Club. N.p., 8 July 2013 . Web. 04 Apr. 2017.
This article was written by Hazeltine National, a professional event decorator. This article was mostly about how to decorate your party area. An event such as this requires a lot of thought and coordination. National went through step by step on what to do and how to do it. Some steps she included was making it memorable with props, color coordination with school colors, honoring students accomplishments, table and seating arrangements, etc. This is super helpful to us because it gives us a basis on how to start our set up. It allows us to picture the decor we are most looking for and where to start that from.
Brennan , Cheri . "Creating and Designing a Sports Banquet Theme." Ezinearticles.com . N.p., 30 Aug. 2009 . Web. 4 Apr. 2017 .
This article was written by Cheri Brennan and it goes into great detail on what we need to create for part of the decor at our banquet. Sports banquets are suppose to be formal, since it is an honorable event. Being said that, formality is what we are going to aim for. She explains that lighting, backgrounds (for pictures), a podium, eating materials (napkins, plates, silverware), etc, are all important factors in creating a “formal” look. Knowing how to create a formal look is going to help us a lot in the long run because that is what we really want to come out of this. We want to create something so perfect that it will be memorable. Coming in with a very coordinated event will be something no one will forget.
Writer, Leaf Group. "Sports Banquet Invitation Wording Ideas." Entertainment Guide | Local.com. Local.com, 26 June 2011. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.
Invitations are one of the most important things to include when creating any kind of event. Its most important when creating a formal event like a sports banquet. Since our event is honoring and congratulating athletes, that needs to be really broad on our invitations. They have to be particular and noticeable. The article explains what needs to be on the invitations since our event is specific. It tells us to include; location, attire, who is being honored and what the official agenda is. This really benefits us because creating the invitation is the number one thing to start with, after finding all of the general information about our event. The invitation attracts our invitees.
Berkowitz , Kenny . "Better Banquets." Better Banquets. N.p., 29 Jan. 2015 . Web. 04 Apr. 2017.
This article is about other schools and what they do to keep their banquets interesting. Sometimes, events such as this one can be really drawn out and people usually leave when it isn’t even over yet. For us, that is not our goal at all. We want to make it as involved and fun as possible. This article gave us different ideas to keep it interesting. It explains that involving as many students as possible is the best idea because everyone is being honored (which parents want, and more people will come). It also gave us the idea of selecting a few people, mostly seniors, to give a speech about their time at SLA and how their sport is important to them. We also want to include as many lower classmen as possible.
"Team Awards Dinner Ideas To Celebrate The End Of the Season." To Celebrate The End Of the Season. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.
This article doesn’t have a main author, but it talks a lot about the food part of any sports banquet, or any party at all. In the article, it is suggested that before we start doing any catering planning, to have a all around survey on what people like. By having people take a survey, a more diverse list can be created, offering many. They give us ideas on what kind of food set up we can use, and we find it most helpful using a buffet set up. A buffet will allow our guests to have a little bit of a choice. Although this article mainly focuses on food options, it benefits us because now we have an easier way of figuring out an easy food plan.
Blankenburg, Eric. "Ideas for an Athletic Banquet." EHow. Leaf Group, 24 Jan. 2010. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.
This article goes over a couple of important things; decorations, foods, awards, activities, gifts, etc. We find this article most helpful when the author focuses in on awards. As a pair, we haven’t quite figured out what kind of articles we are offering yet. But, this article explains that the most important one to hand out to each sport team is “MVP.” This can open up a variety of awards that we could use such as “most improved” “most team spirit” “all around athletic” and many more. The article tells us that it is important to recognize and all and not leave anybody out, especially if they are there. As we have said before, we want this to be as memorable as possible considering these are the first ever athletes at SLA and this is the first capstone.
