The end of the year at Ames High brings out several long lasting traditions: the seniors graduate; the school falls victim to a prank; the spring play; commencement; and of course, all those ridiculous posters with promises and faces plastered all over the walls. Seriously though, starting the the last week in April, these ludicrous posters find their ways into every single hall of Ames High. They’re filled with vague positive words such as “hope,” and “dreams,” and each one has a more cheesy, photo-shopped image than the last. To freshman, this tradition must seem a bit uncouth. They panic as the once safe, and grey walls of their beloved high school suddenly fill with vibrant colors and messages: “Where do all these amazing posters come from!? And what do they mean!?” To seniors, this is old news. They know it’s just the start of student body co-president campaigns. “Saving the world comes second nature to us,” says junior Kevin Babcock, co-chair of the Brown-Babcock campaign. “The night is darkest just before the dawn.” When asked if this means that we are currently experiencing a very dark time, he replied: “Yes, we are in a very dark time right now.” Babcock, and his partner Cody Brown are just one of three parties running for the co-pres spot this year. The other all junior parties include Ennis-Henderson and Dupuis, Lee, and CP. Many students have been confused as to what the student body co-president job actually entails. “Well we run student council, which meets every Wednesday morning,” said incumbent senior co-president Malcolm Squire. “Running student council means being in charge of many school events including Winter Madness week and the crush can fund-raiser.” Squire also mentioned the informal powers a co-president has as a representative and voice of the students to the faculty. “Every co-pres job is unique, and it takes people with ingenuity.” So Let’s get to know the parties running for the job next year, and what they plan to do, before election time comes. Ennis-Henderson, you’re as deer to us as Venison. That’s what juniors Sam Ennis and Katrina Henderson plan to tell the students of Ames High. Though that alone is very humorous and convincing, they elaborated on their plans for next year. “We want [school] to be more open so students can express concern,” Ennis said. “We also want to research the healthy kids act to maybe get bake-sales back.” “Even for kids not in student council, we want to get info out so they know what’s happening and we can focus on what’s going on,” Henderson said. Other plans include getting music back into the hallways and ensuring an awesome Junior/Senior room. Ennis and Henderson have known each other well for around 3 years, they’ve both been actively involved in student council, as well as other activities such as Key club, SHEPH, and the Thespians. “We’ll work hard, we’re fun people and we don’t make a mess!” Henderson said. The next party consists of not two, but three juniors. Dupuis, Lee, and CP stands for juniors Louis Dupuis, Hangil Lee, and Cheyene Pritchard. The three of them together have a combined 7 years of experience in student council. “We will do everything in our power to get things done,” Pritchard says, “You will know stud-co exists!” They describe themselves as the three musketeers leading the way through next year. A few of the things they plan to do next year include working on the junior/senior room, such as implementing the uses of a couch and lava-lamps, working towards getting bake-sales back, and casual dance-party fundraisers. Each one of them has held a leader position in the school, Dupuis in band, Pritchard in basketball, and Lee with his high IQ. “We’ve wanted to [be student body co-presidents] since we joined student council,” Pritchard said. The 3rd party is the aforementioned Brown-Babcock coalition. “Slogans don’t matter,” claims junior Cody Brown. While Brown didn’t concentrate on a witty slogan, he did concentrate on the issues. “Walls, we’re going to fix the walls,” Brown said. “And introduce more activities into student council, such as a talent show and the boat float.” Brown described the boat float as an activity involving constructing boats out of every day materials and sailing them. Brown and Babcock also wanted to introduce a big-buddy/little-buddy relationship with nearby Fellows elementary. Brown was student body co-president in middle school, and both Brown and Babcock are active members of 100th green butterfly. They claim to have fallen in love whilst talking about Super Smash Bros. Brawl during middle school track. “There’s a hope, we are the light,” Brown said. Each party has a campaign video that will air in an extended 1st period on Tuesda, May 3rd. The student body may vote between the three parties on Wed, May 4th, in homeroom.