This is one of a series of five-year, COVID-19 pandemic anniversary articles The Accolade’s Spotlight team has expanded from its original print version distributed to the campus on Monday, March 24.

Three boys stand in front of a whiteboard in their classroom, each either wearing a paper crown on his head or holding it in his hand.

The one on the far left, holding a balloon in his right hand and showing the peace sign with his left, wears a Sunny Hills Lancers football jersey numbered 77.

The one in the middle sports a huge grin while the fingers of his right hand hold onto the string that has a helium balloon tied at the other end.

And finally, the last boy on the far right also tugs onto his string with a helium inflatable at the other end — as if that were a priceless diamond.

An Accolade photographer in October 2018 captured that moment, an annual celebration of senior boys thrilled to learn they got nominated to participate in the Mr. Sunny Hills pageant.

Usually held in the Performing Arts Center [PAC], though it has been held once off campus in the past (more on that later), the activity served as an opportunity to recognize male Lancers since homecoming only features a princess court and a queen but no prince or king.

According to past Accolade articles, the event would feature the contestants entertaining an audience with a panel of judges declaring the winner, Mr. Sunny Hills.

After the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the venue never returned to campus. That tradition — reportedly started in 1995 — joins a few others that indirectly became a casualty of the viral outbreak. 

“I’m surprised to hear that Mr. Sunny Hills … [is] no longer around,” said Class of 2018 alumna Camryn Pak, who paid for a ticket to watch the pageant in 2016 and 2018 when she was a student here. “I remember some of my friends getting nominated for Mr. Sunny Hills, and it was really interesting to see what performances the nominees came up with.” 

Class of 2017 alumnus Daniel Jung — now a student studying law at the University of Chicago — said Mr. Sunny Hills was also a cherished memory for him.

“It’s unfortunate to hear that [it’s gone], as I thought it was a great way to celebrate our friends’ unique talents,” Jung said. “I have many fond memories of Mr. Sunny Hills, including [watching] a [New Zealand] haka dance, a stand-up comedy routine and a fantastic rendition of [Frank Sinatra’s] ‘My Way.’”

Other lost traditions after the COVID-19 pandemic include:

• holiday quad decorations on the Monday before final exam week in December
• Associated Student Body [ASB] candidates handing out “vote for me” trinkets that have safety pins attached to them to be placed onto students’ backpacks or their clothing to show support for those running for ASB positions
• off-campus Lancer Awards Night at the auditorium next to Fullerton Union High School [FUHS]

SHOULD THE PAGEANTRY RETURN?

For its final year, Mr. Sunny Hills was held on Nov. 8, 2018, instead of during the traditional spring semester because of then upcoming PAC modernizations, according to a past Accolade article.

While all male seniors were not required to participate, the Top 50 pageant nominees were notified of their selections during their period-two classes with a crown and a yellow balloon. Then, ASB presidents from other school districts would be invited to come to the pageant to cast their votes for the Mr. Sunny Hills winner.

Though Mr. Sunny Hills no longer occurs, ASB adviser David Fenstermaker said the fund account for it still exists because it’s difficult to create a new account in case Mr. Sunny Hills returns.

That has prompted some ASB members in the past to ask the adviser if that pageant can be resurrected, though Fenstermaker said it’s more complicated now because of equity and inclusion concerns.

“I liked it, but we have these issues that are always connected with our decision-making on who represents,” the ASB adviser said. “Representation is important.”

The Accolade had various students read past articles about Mr. Sunny Hills to share whether such a tradition should return.

Senior Roen Forbes said he would be in support of the talent show coming back.

“Just dressing up to go do something fun seems like something out of the ordinary that not every school would do,” Forbes said. “I think adding a homecoming king would’ve made it a lot easier to resolve the gender inclusivity issues rather than adding a whole new event.”

Senior Jackson Martinez agreed with Forbes’ take on Mr. Sunny Hills’ return.

“It’s a fun event that gets people involved with the school,” Martinez said. “I’m sure we can create something like a Mrs. Sunny Hills to be more inclusive.”

Junior Devana Cortez said some aspects could be altered to solve the complications.

“Mr. Sunny Hills could probably just be opened up to everyone if they wanted to add gender inclusivity,” Cortez said. “I feel like being crowned as a nominee during class could be a little awkward, but it sounds like a fun tradition.”

Math teacher and girls basketball head coach Jae Byun was involved with organizing the event when he was a senior here in 2010.

“I would be in support of Mr. Sunny Hills coming back because it was a long-time tradition at Sunny Hills for the senior guys, and everyone loved it,” Byun said. “It was really fun for the guys to do, and then the girls would get involved because they would escort the guys [to the stage].”

2010 was also the first time that senior organizers like Byun had to find a different venue — the La Mirada Performing Arts Center — to house the event after school officials canceled the PAC-scheduled pageant because of a senior prank.

DECK THE CAMPUS

Former ASB adviser Tiburcio Garcia said the December Holiday Quad Decorating Contest began in 1999 after he learned about such an event while attending a national ASB convention. Garcia then sought approval from his ASB students to try it out.

Before the decorations are revealed on campus, students from each grade level would fundraise among their peers or family and relatives to obtain materials needed for the decorations, according to past Accolade articles. They would also hold meetings to brainstorm theme ideas to be the top class in the contest.

On decorating day, students would arrive at school early in the morning — hours before the start of the first period — to set up their theme display in a certain part of the quad.  A certain number of teachers were selected as judges to choose the best presentation later that day.

Because of low participation, the contest changed starting in 2007 to just an ASB-organized activity in which ASB students came to school early on the Monday before the first day of finals to deck the quad. That tradition continued until December 2019, three months before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I would love for [quad decorating] to come back,” said Martinez, who was born on Dec. 25. “Seeing the quad decorated for Christmas during finals week would both be fun and lighten the mood during a stressful time of the year.”

Martinez’s wish could come true, though he won’t be around to see it since he would have graduated this past May, as Fenstermaker said he plans to work with his ASB students to reprise this tradition.

“I think it’s important,” the ASB adviser said. “It’s sort of what makes a school, and a school is the traditions that it has.”

Forbes doubted a contest would improve school spirit.

“Personally, I don’t think I would have the time to participate because of finals and also because most sports have something going on in the winter,” he said. “A lot of people are athletes, and everyone has finals, so I don’t think that there would be that many other people willing to do it as well.”

While Forbes said having ASB members decorate the quad wouldn’t make a difference either, he said it would benefit students in other ways.

“Seeing holiday decorations around the quad during a stressful time would definitely uplift the students and staff members who walk by the middle of the campus,” he said. “It would remind us of winter break and get us excited for what’s happening after finals.”

Cortez said she also preferred ASB members to decorate the quad.

“During finals week, everyone is stressed out, so I think decorations add some life to the school,” she said. “The decorations from all the different classes would clash too much since everyone has different ideas.”

GAINING VOTER SUPPORT ONE TRINKET AT A TIME

While campaigning using small items like buttons was the main preference in previous years, recent candidates started gravitating away from this option after the COVID-19 pandemic.

For 20 decades from the 1980s-2000s, ASB cabinet candidates would be seen passing out trinkets, such as buttons and keychains, to students around campus so they could show their support for the candidate, according to past Accolade articles.

With the sudden closing of schools because of COVID-19 safety measures, the ASB had to inform its candidates to cancel all in-person campaigning ideas and rely instead on social media to promote themselves.

‘We’ve been doing online voting for five years now, but we always had some form of on-campus campaigning,” former ASB co-adviser Mike Paris said in a 2020 Accolade article.

According to that piece, in addition to the usual taped signs around campus, ASB candidates used to hand out backpack tags to whoever wanted to support and promote their campaigns before social distancing protocols.

But when students returned to campus for in-person instruction in the fall of 2021, they never saw the usual trinkets passed out during election season and so did not opt for that option though it’s still included in the paperwork all candidates receive to ensure they follow ASB-approved campaigning guidelines.

ASB president senior Sean Lee, one of the ASB candidates in 2021, said he never considered old ways of promoting a candidate while researching possible campaign methods.

“Social media was an integral part of my campaign for the election … [because] posting campaign videos online and reposting campaigning photos on social media platforms such as Instagram definitely helped put me out there to a much larger audience,” said Lee, who has been on cabinet since his freshman year.

While the ASB president and many others had no interest in adding trinkets into their promotions, sophomore Madelyn Sooter decided to become an outlier this school year in her pursuit of becoming the next junior class president.

“For my campaign, I ultimately decided to pass out stickers in order to further promote myself and do so in a way that is personal, as I had to hand out each individual sticker to those who received them,” Sooter said.

The stickers were in a rectangular shape and contained the following in black ink: a star with her name to the right of it and below it, the position that she was asking students to vote for her on.

The sophomore, who also has played a sport in each season this school year, said she got the throwback idea from her mother.

“From some feedback from my mom, who had also run for class cabinet in the past at Sunny, she suggested for me to as it was a popular and engaging way to campaign and promote others to vote for you,” she said. “In agreeing with her, I then decided to use them as a part of my campaign, thinking of passing them out during classes, breaks and candidate rush to other.”

Although she lost her bid to lead the junior class, Sooter said she does not regret her campaign strategy.

“Ultimately, I feel that I would have started doing this earlier, then I would’ve had a better chance at winning and spreading the word about my campaign,” the sophomore said.

FROM A GRAND BALLROOM TO THE PAC

Few know that Lancer Awards Night used to be referred to as “Lancer Knight.”

The same is true of the various venues that school officials used to celebrate students receiving academic awards.

According to past Accolade articles, the first one was held in 1985 in a “Grand Ballroom” inside what was then known as the Buena Park Hotel and Convention Center. But by 1990, the event was moved to Buena Park’s Sequoia Athletic Club, now known as the Sequoia Center.

Five years later in 1995, school officials agreed to hold the ceremony in the school gym in response to cutting costs and complaints made about the nearly five-hour running time. It wasn’t until two years after that did Lancer Knight end up at the Fullerton Auditorium — then known as Plummer Auditorium — next to Fullerton Union High School. Since the school district owns that venue, it didn’t cost Sunny Hills any money to host it there.

For more than two decades, the awards ceremony remained at Fullerton Auditorium, but that all changed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, forcing the event’s cancellation. In the following year in 2021, for health and safety precautions, school officials opted to bring back the celebration to campus, though at an outdoor venue — the quad. 

They also rebranded the event and referred to it as Lancer Awards Night, adding certain spots on around the quad for Instagram-like photo opportunities with friends and family. 

Once the pandemic’s health and safety protocols such as masking were lifted, school officials decided to move the quad ceremony to the PAC in 2023, and it’s been held there since. 

Students and alumni remained mixed on whether the awards night should be brought back to an off-campus site. 

“Having it at the [off-campus] auditorium would definitely make it feel more official,” sophomore Niveen Hassan said.

Junior Marcus Chang preferred the PAC but for a reason other than the environment and mood.

“It’s better because it’s less far from Fullerton Auditorium and more convenient,” said Chang, who attended the ceremony every year since 2023.

However, Pak, the 2018 graduate and a former valedictorian, said going to the auditorium off campus didn’t make the celebration more unique.

“I enjoyed being recognized and getting dressed up for the event with my friends, but it wasn’t the venue that made it special,” said the Stanford University graduate, who received the Rotary, Spanish 2, Spanish 3 Honors and IB English HL 2 awards.

Jung, the 2017 graduate who went on to Northwestern University in Illinois to study journalism, agreed with Pak’s assessment.

“From the school’s side, I supposed they wanted to add an air of formality,” said the law student, a Rotary Award recipient. “But as students, we were just happy to be there and didn’t care for the ambience as much.”

Although traditions changed or ceased because of the pandemic or after COVID-19 hit, Fenstermaker said it doesn’t mean post-virus ones can’t be established.

“I think traditions are extremely important to school culture,” he said. “COVID might’ve altered some traditions, but that just allows room for new ones to grow and make our campus unique.”