Speaker of the House Drew Miller

What does the job entail?

“First of all I lead the meetings for House of Representatives and then I’m also in charge of and help lead our Cabinet, which is the (executive) team for Dance Marathon. So all of the events we put on, we have committees that organize and orchestrate. I help them, assist them and do all the organizing with them. So I lead two groups, really.”

Could you explain what House does to those that may not understand?

“House participates and fundraises money all throughout the year for Riley Children’s Hospital. Their main job is to help promote and get people to attend these events, so for example, an event we had this past semester was the FT3K, so it was their job to promote on social media and get their friends to come to the event with them and just participate and it was successful. We had all 400 slots filled so it was a very successful event because of the House. We also just fundraise money for Riley Hospital for Children; that’s our main focus of this organization, just fundraising money.”

How does that plan for Dance Marathon this year with COVID-19 and social distancing and all of that in mind?

“To be honest with you, it’s been fun. I’ve enjoyed the challenge. It’s been quite fun because, like you said, there is social distancing, we have to wear masks, we have to follow the rules, all the CDC guidelines and it’s going to look a lot different than it has in the past, but that’s what makes it fun. We’re still going to have (the event) in-person and celebrate what all of us are doing this past year and be able to celebrate our accomplishments and be in-person for that. It’s been fun trying to find out a way to do that, but it has been a challenge.”

How does one join House?

“The application came out (at) the beginning of first semester. If new members want to apply, they’d look out for the application for House this upcoming year, so if you’re a junior then your senior year and (so on) for the other grades. So it’s the start of every year. If you’re not in House, you’re still able to participate in the events; it’s not just House. It’s welcome to everyone in the Carmel community. “

Dance Marathon Chair Jacob Young

What does the job entail?

“It’s a lot of collaborative work. There’s a ton of different assignments throughout Cabinet that people sign up for, whether or not that’s helping plan and execute an event or taking care of a committee, which can be communicating with corporate businesses. As Dance Marathon chair, I collaborate with those people by helping them to achieve whatever their tasks are, in whatever way I can. I work a lot with (the) speaker of the House on some of his things that he does.”

How has planning for Dance Marathon been this year with issues such as Covid?

“One decision we made pretty early on this year was that we were going to move Dance Marathon back to May to allow for more time for COVID to hopefully get better and more vaccine rollout and things like that. So hopefully, COVID numbers will be going down (also) so we could do it outside. That’s one of our biggest changes this year, is we’re going to try to do it outside so that we can allow for more social distancing and allow for obviously way better circulation than the freshman cafeteria.”

How are those decisions made? What’s the process for that?

“We have a leadership team; it’s seven of us, plus our teacher sponsor. We are making those really big decisions together and we pitch it, we usually take a few days or a week to sleep on it and think about how this affects it, but especially this year health and safety is our number-one priority. Obviously, the event is very fun and we want to do it no matter what, but if we can’t do it because of health and safety or we have to make these big changes, that’s what our number -one priority is. We just have to do that, we are still very early on in the planning process but that’s the big one, going outside and we’re obviously going to incorporate social distancing.”

How does this year compare to other years in Cabinet that you’ve spent?

“We’re trying to make the most of it and you have to take that into everything, but sometimes it’s sad. We always make the joke about what a stereotypical Cabinet month is, so we’re doing fundraising and we have two or three events and all of these things and we haven’t done an event since October because COVID numbers rose. So we had to postpone our events and we’re going to start having them again soon. It’s just been weird because we haven’t been as busy, we’re still trying to find other things to keep us busy, but we haven’t been as busy, which is just weird, but we’re doing our best to fill in that time.”

Is there anything I haven’t asked that you think readers should know?

“Dance Marathon is coming up in May. I think readers should know they need to sign up for Dance Marathon. So many people don’t, or they do their senior year and are like, ‘Why didn’t I do this sooner?’ It’s a fantastic time, you’re supporting a major cause. So readers, if there’s one thing they take away from this entire interview, sign up for Dance Marathon. It’s fantastic and we want to see you there.”