The Winter Toast Off
Making history and inspiring others through planning and supporting their peers.
Jade Pederson and ASL club members and advisor, who helped plan and set up the event.
Everyone one walks down the halls excited for their day to be over when they are greeted by the sight of their peers enjoying different booths full of activities put together by their favorite clubs.
This December, Central Kitsap High School had its first ever Winter Toast Off which was an event planned and executed by the American Sign Language Club. The event was similar to the Clubs Tailgate put on by the Associated Student Body in September.
With the huge success of the Club’s Tailgate earlier this school year, American Sign Language Club president and senior Jade Pederson was encouraged to put on an event for everyone.
“Last year during quarantine, we had decided that we wanted to do something fun as an activity just for the club. Something that was just to kind of distract us and do something right before winter break just to have something really fun to do.” Pederson said.
While the event didn’t happen for ASL Club last year, it flourished into an event where everyone could participate and have fun. The event’s success was expressed by the students who came to enjoy all of the activities.
The most popular game among students was Ddakji, put on by the Asian American and Pacific Islander Club. A staff favorite was to match the baby picture to the teacher which was created by Class of 2023.
While communicating with administrators, clubs, and advisors were difficult for Pederson to get the boat floating, finding balance in her life took precedence; being a full time running start student, making sure she has all of her graduation requirements, and making lesson plans for ASL Club.
“It was difficult to kind of just balance all of those things, making sure that I wasn’t giving something too much attention or another thing too little attention. But once I got my footing, and even then I still kind of feel like I wasn’t exactly 100% there, until doing it today,” Pederson said.
Throughout all of the pressure Pederson felt to get everything done, she was rewarded when her vision came to light.
“But honestly, I was still surprised by it even more, because even from my wildest dreams with it, it was so much better than that. And there was like, not as many hiccups there as I thought it was going to be and the turnout I just I was so surprised by the fact that it was like a perfect amount,” Pederson said.
“There weren’t too many people there that we were getting a little bit nervous about COVID but there were so many people there that it was like a big event that a lot of people could go to and have fun with.”
“If there was anything that I would have to say to other clubs or to other students that wanted to do something along the same lines, the winter toast off is a big event that everybody would be taking part in. It would be that even though there are so many different challenges that sometimes it gets overwhelming that at moments you’ll probably break down and think that maybe it’s not worth it anymore that maybe you should stop and just drop it. Like nobody’s gonna care about it. I would honestly just say that, that’s totally false. There are going to be so many people who care about it just as much as you do. So many people are going to be as excited as so many people who are going to want something like this, even though they couldn’t themselves think about it, and that even with all of those challenges, it is so rewarding. In the end, to kind of just look at this and be like, I know I did this I took part in this I brought something that was enjoyable to somebody else and I brought something that they would remember for a long while and that it’s something that I know that it’s like rewarding to give back to other people in that sense because you get see it in front of your eyes.” — Jade Pederson, Senior
ASL Club has lots of goals set for this year, and is looking to do more big events and hopes that if another club wishes to put an event on they should.
