Yesterday night, Masuk Peer Leadership along with the help of the Alcohol Drug Awareness Program of Monroe (ADAM), held the school’s very first movie night, showing Mamma Mia on the upper field of the school.
The movie, which started at 7p.m., generated a decent sized crowd for a Thursday night. There were clusters of students scattered across the upper field, bundled up in blankets and hats as the temperature reached the mid fifties.
Sophomore AJ Cavanaugh and junior Lilly Cameron were among those bundled up. Cavanaugh, who has seen Mamma Mia over ten times, said he was super happy with the pick saying, “Oh yeah this movie is a classic,” to which Cameron adds, “I hope they do more movie nights with good movies like this in the future.”
Grace Foley, a junior, also advocated for future movie nights and questioned why they had not previously happened at Masuk, “It was such an amazing event, I wonder why they haven’t done this before, I feel like it is such a creative idea.”
Ian Lowell, the assistant principal of Masuk and advisor of Peer Leadership, responded to all questions mirroring Foley’s, “The event has been in the works ever since the council was founded three years ago.” However, peer leadership; who organized, worked and planned this whole event, faced one main challenge; funding.
Lowell revealed that the process for funding this movie night idea took multiple years, as Lowell had to make many calls to find screens big enough to project the film. The setup that peer leadership ended with was with a projector and sound system provided by Joel Castillo, a teacher of Masuk, and a $1000 screen partially paid for by the event’s sponsor, ADAM.
ADAM is a community awareness and educational program on substance and alcohol abuse for teens of Monroe. Lowell states that, “without ADAM, none of this would have happened” as they sponsored this event to promote fun activities that are completely substance free. To ensure this, all students were required to pass a breathalyzer test upon entering the field area.
Junior Yara Shaik, a member of the Peer Leadership Board, says that the movie pick was a hit, “We did let the students vote, so we were not surprised that among those movies elected, Mamma Mia won.” Peer leadership advisor Ian Lowell, who has never seen the film himself, hoped that the students’ pick generated more love than his own pick, which was Clash of the Titans.
Many students were happily dancing along to the movie, including junior Cadence Fedeli, who was heard singing along to the musical’s songs with friend Grace Foley. Fedeli stated, “Mamma Mia is one of my favorite movies and I was singing every word to my friends Ollie and Grace. I will show up to any movie night, let alone one with ABBA in it.”
Junior Ollie Panella, not only jokingly commented on the off key notes produced by Fedeli, but also said that the night was somewhat unifying for the school, “It was a fun way to bring Masuk together, I saw so many people here tonight that I haven’t seen in a while…and the popcorn stand was really good too.”
Another hit of the night was the concession stand, which was located behind the big screen that projected the movie. There was constantly a line to purchase water or popcorn, with peer leadership working hard throughout the night to keep up with the demand. The money earned by the concession stand, as explained by Lowell, “will go towards funding the school’s culture fair that happens in the Spring, one of Peer Leadership’s biggest events.”
The movie night was a hit, with many students happy to have the event. The community has Peer Leadership and the Alcohol Drug Awareness of Monroe to thank, who hope to host more movie nights in the future.
Masuk Free Press 