There will be no homecoming game or celebration centered around football at Midtown, a consequence of the cancellation of the varsity football season. However, the Student Government Association (SGA) and Parent Teacher Student Organization (PTSO) have worked together to create a new, Covid-safe event for students: an outdoor fall festival on Oct.15 to culminate Spirit Week activities that begin Oct. 12.

“On that Friday there will be an outdoor carnival,” Aaliyah Rapping, SGA executive president, said.“We were talking about possibly having food trucks, music, food, having parents help plan and possibly having each grade level come with their own grade t-shirt and grade color.”

The two organizations will collaborate on the event.

“We are hoping for the students to really be involved, especially the SGA officers,” Susan Barber, SGA sponsor said. “We want them to take the leadership and to bring the ideas.”

SGA has student representatives from all grades and an executive council. All SGA members will help plan the activities.

“We are still just kind of in the beginning, where everyone’s listening to everyone, which is great,” senior class president Zephy Schroeder said. “It’s obvious that everyone’s ideas are valued, and we have had a lot of good conversations.”

Schroeder said having some kind of fall event is important to create a sense of normalcy after a long period of online school and events.

“Homecoming is a staple that everyone is used to,” Schroeder said. “I feel like high school experiences are like Friday night lights, which we don’t have —homecoming, we can try to make something of. Whether or not it is the typical homecoming, it is still the homecoming aspect and feel.”

SGA emphasizes connecting students by raising school spirit.

“I think it is important to have some sort of homecoming event,” Rapping said. “It gets people excited about coming to school, getting involved with their peers and coming together as a community for something.”

SGA has high hopes for the fall festival, but isn’t as optimistic about a dance.

“At this point, it’s just not realistic to do a dance,” Barber said “But we were looking at the basketball schedule, and we might want to plan a more traditional homecoming around one of the basketball games.”

Concerns about Covid-19 and Midtown’s 1,550 student population hinders the planning of a traditional indoor dance.

“I have not let go of the idea that there could be a dance, but I’m not very confident that we will have a dance just due to the amount of students we have at the school,” Rapping said. “I don’t think they would let us do it in any of the gyms. I think we’d have to rent a bigger venue. So, in terms of planning, I’m not super confident that it will happen.”

Barber said she hopes there will be an opportunity for a dance in the near future.

“I think it’s hard because Covid is just like this moving target,” Barber said. “It’s always changing. I think that makes it hard and just like figuring out how we can promote community when it’s hard to have a bunch of people together.”

Regardless of whether or not there is a dance, a homecoming week centered around basketball season is in the works.

“The fall festival is not a replacement to homecoming,” Schroeder said. “There will still be a traditional homecoming week with themes, there will still be a homecoming court and a homecoming game, that game being during basketball season. The fall festival is just an activity in October for students to look forward to.”