The Sadie Hawkins Winterfest dance has been held at Leesville for the past 18 years, giving female students the opportunity to choose and ask their own date, instead of the traditional boy-ask-girl.
The idea of “Sadie Hawkins” originated in 1937 with a popular comic strip called Lil Abner. In the strip, 35-year-old single woman, Sadie, received her own day to run around town in attempt to snatch an eligible bachelor. If Sadie was able to grab her lucky man and drag him across the finish line by sunset, the town gave her the right to marry him.
Of course, Sadie succeeded, and the idea of “girl pursues boy” exploded. Sororities and fraternities started holding “Sadie Hawkins” dances where the responsibility of finding a date was handed to the female, and the idea caught on and spread.
Leesville’s Winterfest is one out of many high schools that participates in the Sadie Hawkins tradition, and Leesville’s lady population takes this opportunity to show their creativity. Leesville’s Sadie Hawkin’s Winterfest dance will be held on Feb 13 in the gymnasium.
Victoria Sykes is one Leesville student who showed her creativity through her winter fest proposal.
“My dad owns a sign company, so I asked him to make an individual sign for each of the letters in ‘winterfest’ that I could put in my boyfriend’s yard while he was at work. When Tony came home from work that evening it was dark, so I parked across the street & used my car lights as a spot light on the signs and after he said yes, I took him to dinner,” said Sykes. “It was fun to get to ask him for once!”
Yolandi Prinsloo, sophomore, took a risk by asking a “just a friend” to Winterfest. “My friend Peter’s favorite candy is Skittles, so I went and bought seven bags of Skittles. I then put one word of ‘Will you go to Winterfest with me?’ on each bag of Skittles. I then got my six best friends to hand him the bags of skittles in the right order and I handed him the last bag that said ‘me’,” said Prinsloo. “It was fun to switch it up and ask the boy for a change.”
Leesville ladies have been asking their dates for the past month, and the ladies will flaunt their well-earned dates at the Feb. 13 Sadie Hawkins Dance.
Katy has been on staff since her sophomore year, starting as a staff writer. With hard work and diligence, she earned a junior editor position and ultimately became Editor-in-Chief her senior year. She will pursue a degree in journalism in college.
Leave a Reply