Jordan Williams Ms. Lawson 5/30/17 For my Senior Capstone I wanted to do something that was important to me and a significant part of my high school career which was sports. I played a sport every year of my high school career and I had some hardships with it but overall it has helped me through highschool and staying focused on graduating and going to college. My partner Gianna also felt the same connection with sports so we collaborated on our capstone to hold a sports banquet for the 2016-2017 school year. We wanted to come together and celebrate all the sports, athletes, and coaches from this great athletic year for SLA@Beeber. Starting in about November Gianna and I had a plan for a banquet but as the year went on and we often had a lot of other work to do our plan got away from us. We wanted to start fundraising but was never able to make time for it. We then realized by March our plan was a little unrealistic so we started to downsize it but still focusing on the final product of a ceremony to honor our peer student athletes. We then also started budgeting our own money because we weren’t able to fundraise and was able to make arrangements that fit the budget but would still be worth it in the end. We now have a full plan and are still executing it. Our ceremony will be held in the auditorium on June 7th, 2017 at 1:30. Annotated 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.

During the early years of high school I was a lonely child. Although I was very friendly at the time and had no trouble finding friends, I found trouble confiding in them and I felt unable to speak my mind. This had led me to begin writing as a way to express these emotions. I had continued to write, but slowed down in my sophomore year of high school, due to learning the skill of woodworking/carpentry. For the first time in my life I was able to create something tangible from absolutely nothing but an image in my mind. That was something I had never experienced before this point. It was liberating in so many ways, and it led me to other practices such as electronics, drawing, painting, and so much more. However in my junior year I had begun to deal with some very personal problems, and my family life became very chaotic. It was once again difficult for me to express myself and I had lost focus on what I wanted in life. That changed, but only after I had found my old writings, because I had begun to understand what writing used to do for me mentally. Eventually I had pulled myself from a very dark place through writing, and that collection of writings was meant to be my capstone in the form of a book. This vision had to change, since the writings were all more or less separate they have to be organized and tweaked so that they flow as a cohesive book. I do want to complete this project, even if it takes me thirty years to do so. The collection of writings are just very personal and have to be edited very delicately before I can comfortably release them for everyone to see. But since this is my senior project I knew I had to have something completed, so I decided to create a blog. So that I may post as I complete the pieces and so I can organize them as I release them. The first blog post will be posted, and read as part of my capstone presentation. Feel free to add your input on any posts, and welcome to my first attempt at a blog. Any updates will be noted in future posts.