The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School “Soaring Oscars” award ceremony took place on Tuesday, April 18 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the MSD auditorium, and was organized and led by the MSD Student Government Association. The event has been a tradition for years and was established before the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year was the first time since the pandemic that the event was hosted. SGA students and classes worked to brainstorm and plan out the event from the categories of awards to the intermissions between awards.

“Planning the whole event took us about a month to do,” SGA student and “Soaring Oscars” planner Allison Clark said. “There were multiple committees that had different jobs so the planning [could] go smoother.”

The different committees included those responsible for setting up the event, those who created the student nomination process and those who publicized the event.

“As an SGA student we have to attend the event at least for participation credit in the event.” SGA student Connor Opdyke said.

The nomination process is completely student-led with MSD students being able to nominate any other senior student for each of the categories on a Microsoft Form created by SGA.

From then on, the students in SGA sorted through the nominations and selected the top three responses for nominees and made a second Microsoft form with each of the three nominees per category. Students then voted for the winners of each category, and the nominees with the most votes were awarded their designated title per category.

“Throughout the year so many students do amazing things at our school,” Soaring Oscars winner of the Helping Hand category Richard Perez said. “For one night out of the year they get the chance to be appreciated for what talents and great things they have done.”

Students dressed up in formal wear to the event and nominees for each of the categories were placed in the VIP section located in the first three rows in the middle of the auditorium. There was a red carpet set up with a backdrop on the outside of the auditorium for students to get an opportunity to take pictures and save memories of the event.

The event attempted to mimic the Oscars from the lighting and the intermission performances in between. MSD students were responsible for setting up the lights, microphones and sound production during the whole event. The ceremony was hosted by students in the Drama Acting class, senior Matthew McKie and junior Julia Levine.

“I got the opportunity to host when I was writing the script in acting class,” Levine said. “When we chose the roles, Matt and I decided we would like to host together.”

The MSD Step Team, LED Dance Team, and Drama all performed during the show as an intermission between awards. Other students in the Drama Acting class also performed skits in between nominations.

The event drew quite the crowd and applause was heard throughout the auditorium as students celebrated for their friends who won awards and for the performances.