An annual tradition continues: Preparing for the school's Bridge Night

By Sophia Qin Feb. 16, 2022

Desiree Vu De Leon Art

The school’s Bridge Night is an annual fundraising event that supports Bridge Club, an organization of Chinese American families who are involved in school-wide activities. With 20 years of prior experience hosting Bridge Night, the organizers welcome students and community members to celebrate the Lunar New Year. To prepare for the 21st Bridge Night, parent volunteers, students and performers have come together to plan for the event.

Due to the various tasks that needed to be completed in preparation for the night of the event, 13 board members shared the responsibilities. To ensure that the event proceeded smoothly, the board members planned performance auditions, volunteer training, raffle prizes, advertisement sponsorships, stage decorations and food distributions. Performances and auditions are a big part of Bridge Night: the event features dances, songs and comedic acts. Performers who passed the audition, many of whom are students at the school, followed a two-week rehearsal period, where they practiced their performances in the school’s cafeteria before the real show. Freshman Joshua Yan was one of the performers in this year’s Bridge Night. Yan hoped to express himself by performing a hip-hop dance piece with his team.

“Bridge Night reminds me of the community I am in, and I was excited to share my skills and love for dance with my community. Although I just started dancing last semester, with the help of my mentor, I was able to overcome my stage fright,” Yan said.

In addition to performances, volunteers played a crucial role in executing a successful event. Student volunteers helped with several tasks before and during Bridge Night. For example, volunteers were involved with backstage coordination, stage decoration, donation booths and food booths. One of the volunteers, Sophomore Elaine Ju, helped with the donation booth and stage decoration.

“Volunteering for Bridge Night was extremely important to me because I wanted to give back to my community. Additionally, being able to learn more about my culture is fascinating,” Ju said.

Student volunteers that helped with Bridge Night came together to perform a finale dance at the end of the event. The choreographers taught the volunteers during their two-week training sessions to help the students prepare for the stage. This year’s choreographers, Freshman Sophia Qin and Sophomore Sarah Sun, created a dance to a four-minute Chinese song.

The Master of Ceremonies (MCs) performed the finale dance as well, leading the other volunteers at the front of the stage. Besides contributing to the dance and introducing the shows, the MCs made sure that the event ran smoothly. Since they had been attending daily rehearsals and thoroughly communicating with the backstage crew, the MCs believed they were on track for an excellent performance.

“This year, we had a lot of interesting and compelling instruments and dances, all of which I am sure everyone enjoyed. Furthermore, there were special guests who spoke with us during the event,” Senior Jasper Wu, one of Bridge Night’s MCs, said.

Even though the guests, performers and volunteers had to follow new COVID-19 protocols, the Bridge Club envisioned this year’s Bridge Night to be just as great as previous years’. The performers are excited to encourage students and parents to participate in school-related activities and support the school’s fundraising efforts.

---

About the Contributors

Sophia Qin

Staff Writer

Sophia Qin is a freshman at Leland High School and a staff writer for The Charger Account. During her free time, she loves dancing, baking, reading, hanging out with friends and family, and drawing.

Desiree Vu De Leon

Photographer

Desiree is a high schooler at Leland High School and contributes to The Charger Account. She has a large variety of hobbies from bird watching to collecting pressed pennies.