Annie Feather: Bringing Dances Back

Photo%3A+Annie+Feather+working+at+Hillers+Pizza

Photo by Emily Welsh

Annie Feather working at her part time job at Hillers Pizza in Hopkinton. Annie just began working at Hillers this last fall and has been able to manage work, school, and all her extracurricular activities. She will continue working there this spring.

This spring marks the first student dance in four years at the high school, which is mainly due to the efforts of officers in the student council, including Annie Feather.

Entering high school as a freshman in the year 2015 meant no dances for students. The previous year the administration put a moratorium on out of school dance events, like a homecoming, Sadie Hawkins, or cotillion.

“It definitely wasn’t easy,” Annie Feather says. “Dances were banned for a reason and it took a lot of persuading to change the administration’s minds.”

At the time, Feather did not realize how much that new reality would influence her high school experience. It was not even on her radar when she ran for student council.

Feather began freshman year wanting to get involved and started by playing freshman soccer. Later that year, she decided to get involved in track and student government.

She went out for both with pretty low expectations, hoping track would be a good way to stay in shape for next year’s soccer season. She ended the season with a varsity letter, rookie of the year award, and qualified for state and national competitions in the triple jump.

She never could have imagined, while in student government as a freshman, all she would be accomplishing in the upcoming years.

“I kinda figured ‘why not?’ It wasn’t too hard to run, so figured I’d give it a shot.”

Feather, to her surprise, was elected and has continued to be reelected ever since. Feather became someone who didn’t know much about student government to now being the vice president of the student council; creating new ideas and helping the student body every day.

One of her bigger accomplishments while being involved in student council is the most recent announcement from the student council; The junior and senior classes will be having a dance. Several other student council members also joined in and decided to take action to get a dance for their last year in school.

The student council has one last meeting with Mr. Bishop before February break to decide the final details.

Thanks to Feather and others, students will have a dance this spring. If all goes well, Feather says this could be a new tradition for many years to come.

“Mr. Bishop has said they have been trying to bring back dances for a while, so once we got on top of it and really took action, it didn’t take long.”

Feather may have started student council with little experience, but will now be finishing her years having left her mark by bringing back dances for future Hillers.