One of the little-known privileges that comes with serving on student council is access to the coveted Google Drive: an endless treasure trove of documents, folders within folders, and hidden secrets from Charity Ball’s distant past. I honestly couldn’t say how many class periods I’ve spent deep-diving into ancient spreadsheets or trying to decipher old planning documents.
Searching through the drive for throwback pictures this past week, I’ve realized that every single document in that drive was created by students just like us. Meeting minutes covered with inside jokes, half-made plans that turned into traditions, or silly videos filmed in the hallways of Enloe are a reflection of the minds of students. It’s like a perfectly preserved, living record of the organization we inherited. From year to year, some traditions stay, some evolve, and some are lost to history, but every trace in that drive is the work of students who cared enough to leave something behind.
In September, Big 5 had the privilege of meeting the founder of Enloe Charity Ball. We expected an exciting origin story, but instead, she remembered a simple idea. She was no more than a student council member who believed that Enloe students were capable of giving back.
That’s what makes Enloe Charity Ball meaningful. The simple truth is that it has always been student-created, student-led, and student-sustained. Nobody’s motivating us to do this work– every document, every picture, and every piece of memory exists because of a student who cared.
Twenty years later, ECB is still a student idea. One that was built upon two decades of ideas from hundreds of students to reach where we are today.