In Oct. 2023, West High held its first-ever Senior Soak. This new excursion was planned out by West’s ASB, in which  students paid money to dunk volunteers with different-sized water buckets for three days.  Both the “soakers” and the “soaked” enjoyed Senior Soak very much, and it was a huge success as both a fundraiser and a school spirit event.

   The idea of a Senior Soak originated from Jordan Seiler (12), a West High ASB historian. As other members enjoyed the thought of it, Senior Soak officially became an event. For those interested in being soaked, there was a volunteer interest form posted on the West High ASB Instagram page. 

   Since this was a new experience for West, there were many preparations and expectations for the event. Darren Chang (12), a member of ASB, expressed, “One of the biggest worries [ASB] had was how to price [the] buckets.” There was uncertainty if “people would be interested in actually soaking” and if there was a surplus of people paying, ASB had to figure out how to fill buckets with large amounts of water efficiently. Despite these concerns, Chang believed the event was very successful. He was one of the students who was soaked on the second day of the event, and he elaborated, “Aside from the profit [ASB] made, [ASB] made quite a bit of money from [the fundraiser].” He also observed how the Senior Soak “brought a lot of people together . . .everyone was interested in watching.”

   It was all the more fun for individuals who didn’t have to worry about the technicalities of the event. Annah Legaspi (12), one of the people who was soaked on the first day of the event, explained how she filled out the volunteer form with low expectations of getting picked. However, when Legaspi received the news she was going to be soaked, she described how she was “excited because [she] knew it’d be just a fun thing to experience something new.” On the day of the event, Legaspi revealed how even though she was “very cold, it was really fun because [she] got to see all [her] friends,” which made some of her soakings “personal, but super exciting.” 

   Matthew Akrabian (11), a student who spent a lot of his money on all three days of the event, found it to be very pleasant. However, he felt that if there was one thing he would change, it would be “more time for [the event], because there were so many people trying to get tickets.” Chang echoed these thoughts when discussing the difficulty in filling up the buckets efficiently. “Water can only come out of faucets so fast,” he stated. 

   All that said, is there a possibility of Senior Soak taking place next year due to its immense success? Chang confirmed, “Students can expect that ASB will do Senior Soak again.” He indicated that students should prepare and save up money to soak their friends because next year’s event “will be held in a similar format to this year’s.”