BY JULIE LAM
What do you do on a Saturday night? Go to the movies or shopping? Well the night of Mar. 30, 2013, the Malden YMCA Leaders Club held their first Masquerade Ball. The Masquerade Ball was held at the Malden YMCA gym at 7 PM until 10 PM. The Malden YMCA Leaders decided to have a semi-formal dance because it was meant to raise money for the club to be able to donate to charity.
The YMCA Leaders Club is run by adviser Frank Molis. The YMCA Leaders Club is a youth-run and non-profit organization where each member learns to become leaders through volunteering and being active within their community. The officers that run this club are Presidents senior Teresa La, junior Hanh Pham, sophomores Vice President Tristar To, Treasurer Kelvin Nguyen, and Historian senior Joshua Tang.
Throughout the process of the planning the dance, the Leaders wanted it to be eye catching and a theme that everyone would be excited about. That was when the Leaders decided to choose the idea of a Masquerade Ball. To be able to attend this dance, all different high school students were able to attend, but must have their student ID with them. The dance was essentially to allow all young adults to be able to interact with one another. Within the dance there was a food stand and also a photo booth. The photo booth allowed the photographers to print pictures right at the dance. There were also masks that were being sold. The DJ at the ball was another fellow YMCA member, Mark Morenon. In preparation for the ball, all of the members came to the YMCA gym at 5 pm for set up. Historian Joshua Tang expressed that this event allowed the members to, be “[assessed] and [enforced] an understanding of the needs of the community.”
Towards the beginning of the night, the people seemed hesitant to dance, but that wasn’t for long. The Leaders Club was able to have special dance performances by Air Bound and KAY. According to MHS sophomore, Kierra Sweeney one of the best moments of the dance was, “Air Bound and KAY’s performance and [she] hopes to see them again in the future.”
Overall, the main purpose the YMCA Leaders Club decided to host the Masquerade Ball was for the member to test and explore their leadership skills. The YMCA Leaders Club ended up with a profit of over $1000. The volunteers plan to donate an undetermined amount of the money to charity. President Hanh Pham states, “Since we’ve received so much positive feedback from our members as well attendees, we plan to organize more dances throughout the year with different themes.”
