Bruins were wild about the first dance of the year.

The annual Bear River Jungle Dance took place on the first Friday of the year, August 18, at 8:00 p.m. This dance is a Bruin-only event and serves as a chance for new students to integrate themselves into the Bruin community.

“I expected it to be crazy, wild, and a lot of fun. It was,” commented Lexi Templeton, a freshman. “I had a ton of fun with my sister and my friends.”

This dance isn’t just for freshmen though — Bruins look forward to returning to the jungle every year.

“I’ve been to every dance, and I’ve always been with different groups of friends … but I always end up with the same people at the end of the night,” said Kaylee Bohrer, a senior.

Many students have similar stories, having gone every year of their high school experience, but some skip the craziness.

“I chose not to go to the Jungle Dance because I don’t like to be there for more than 10 minutes,” shared Pippyn Carney, a junior. “It loses excitement.”

Others didn’t go because of budget issues, prior plans, chores, or parents not wanting their kids to go the craziest dance of the year.

“I had some friends that weren’t able to go because it was a little bit out of their budget,” said Zach Fink, a sophomore.

“I had to do chores and I had to get up early the next day to go to a volleyball tournament,” said Hope Chelewski, a junior.

Regardless of the fact that not quite the whole school was there, Activities Director Matt MacDonald said he was satisfied by the results.

“We got good attendance, 400,” he said. “You know that’s something that we’re really excited about.”

Mr. MacDonald went on to say that one of the main benefits of having such high attendance is that the money from the dance goes directly to the ASB, the Associate Student Body.

“A lot of those things go towards things like buying tables … the fence cup things we did a year ago, the alma mater banner that we put up, some of the signage that you see around here,” MacDonald said. “The associate student body usually pays for all that, so it comes out of our dances and fundraisers, directly to go back to the school.”

Many students were pleased overall with the event.

“My favorite part of the dance is that no one cares who’s around them,” Fink said. “It’s … the community coming together. It gets better every year. … Yeah, it was a good dance.”