By: Monica Cai

Photos by: Jonathan Yong and Wendy Qiu

Despite the moody weather and recent slew of testing, students found a way to enjoy themselves at Spring Fling, which was a two-day event from May 19 to 20 hosted by the Student Executive Council (SEC). “It was a great success,” senior Special Events Commissioner Matteo Lieb said. “A lot of people showed up and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun.”

The first day featured a scavenger hunt at brunch and the Powderpuff game at lunch, where free pizza was provided for students. In the Powderpuff game, two teams, one consisting of seniors and freshmen and the other of sophomores and juniors, battled each other in flag football. The sophomores and juniors emerged victorious, winning with a score of 21-14. The sophomores and juniors were declared winner of Spring Fling, having won every game.

On the second day, SEC continued the trend of homecoming games with the balloon stomp at brunch and obstacle course at lunch. “I thought the games were well-attended and although a certain sense of competitiveness wasn’t there, people still had fun watching in a relaxed, noncompetitive way,” Lieb said. “People were into the games and everyone came out and supported their class.”

However, Lieb felt the games could have been more original, which was an opinion shared by junior Jesse Zwerling. “I thought the games were appropriate for the amount of time they had, but I do feel that a little variation from homecoming games would be better,” Zwerling said.

In order to increase the level of excitement, Lieb came up with the idea of adding class competitions. Zwerling also thought adding more events would make this year’s Spring Fling more interesting. “I wasn’t completely into the games nor do I think the rest of the school was,” Zwerling said. “The hype surrounding Spring Fling was lacking.”

On Friday after school, a block party was held for the entire Palo Alto community was held in the parking lot to end Spring Fling. In addition to offering free popcorn, cotton candy and snow cones, popular vendors such as Panda Express, MoGo BBQ and Kara’s Cupcakes sold food, and a portion of the profits went back to the Student Activities fund. Because this was a SEC sponsored event, and not a school fundraiser, SEC was happy with whatever profits they got from vendors. “We knew going in we were going to lose money so we were fine with it,” Lieb said.

However, according to Student Activities Director Lisa Hall, the vendors were extremely pleased with sales and eager to come back next year. In addition to food, students were provided with plenty of opportunities to have fun with the teachers’ dunk tank, obstacle course, gladiator joust and several other electronic sports games. “The block party was really good,” Zwerling said. “It was a fun way to close out the week.”

Although Spring Fling is an event that has long been a part of Gunn’s history, SEC only decided to reintroduce it last year. This year’s Spring Fling showed several differences, the most prominent being that it was shortened from a week to two days. “All week seemed a little overwhelming,” Lieb said. “We wanted to condense it and make the two days better.” As Special Events Commissioner, Lieb was primarily in charge of planning. “My role was to assign different tasks to various people as groups who then work on it as SEC,” Lieb said. “I coordinated all of the groups and made sure everything was done.”

The block party was another new addition to this year’s Spring Fling. “Four years ago, we did a big carnival event similar to this,” Hall said. “It was well-received, but it wasn’t what students were expecting, so we took a different approach to advertising.” To counter early rumors of a carnival with a Ferris wheel, SEC chose to promote the event as a block party to clear up any misconceptions.

Spring Fling is set to return next year. “Given the attendance and how long people stayed at events, it seemed like people were really enjoying themselves,” Hall said. “The likelihood of Spring Fling occurring again is very high.”