The student news site of Seven Lakes High School

The Torch

www.slhspress.com

Student news website
of Seven Lakes High School
The student news site of Seven Lakes High School

The Torch

The student news site of Seven Lakes High School

The Torch

The Final Countdown

The+Final+Countdown

The Last Stretch Toward Final Yearbook Deadline

Many students look forward to yearbook distribution day, but few know the details about how it’s all put together. The yearbook staff has been working hard on the yearbook since March of last year. As soon as the previous yearbook is done, they begin working on the one for next year. For the past two years, the Odyssey yearbook has been chosen as a national sample by Balfour Publishing, which represents the top three percent of yearbooks nationally. All year long, the staff gathers content for the book, takes photos and designs pages, but the last few days leading up to their final Mar. 8 deadline are especially chaotic.

“The last week that we are working on pages is a rush because we are usually waiting on students to answer us,” Editor in Chief and senior Lisa Silveira said. “It’s a lot of tracking people down, and a lot of teamwork because we’re all working on each other’s pages instead of just our own.”

The editor team works together to ensure the book is an accurate account of the school year. A quality yearbook displays storytelling images, intriguing stories, modern graphic design, and student and faculty portraits to serve as a capsule of the year’s memories.

“There are usually a lot more mistakes toward the end of our deadline because the staff is rushing to get their content on the pages,” Copy Editor and senior Erin Gawne said. “We have to check the grammar and format of all copy, check the spelling of all names and grade levels. We have to really be on top of it, because it’s embarrassing to have spelling mistakes in the yearbook, as the whole school sees it. There are two copy editors which is helpful, because we can check each other.”

Story continues below advertisement

Leading up to the final day, the staff looks forward to celebrating from dawn to dusk. ‘Before Breakfast’ and ‘Done Dinner’ help to foster a family-like dynamic between the editors and staff.
“On the day of our final deadline, we all go to Denny’s really early to eat a good breakfast so we can be ready for the stressful day ahead of getting our pages ready to go to print,” Staff Coordinator and senior Sarah Fibich said. “It’s a great time to relax and talk to each other, before going into school to work on the book.”

After a busy day of editing pages and submitting PDFs to the yearbook plant after school, the staff heads to dinner together to celebrate.

“I love doing ‘Done Dinner at Dairy Queen’ because it’s a fun way to celebrate after it’s been a very stressful couple of weeks,” Executive Design Editor and senior Sarah White said. “It brings back good memories from the year.”

Naturally, the staff also celebrates with a festive photo shoot. Taking a quick break from the organized chaos inside Room 1257, they carry on a tradition set by editors a few years prior.
“When it’s finally done we make giant confetti and take fun photos to celebrate being done,” White said. “It’s also another way to market the yearbook because a lot of students don’t know how the process works or that they can even still buy it.”

Yearbooks are on sale for $85 at www.balfour.com until April 26, unless they sell out first. The yearbook has sold out every year since 2014, so it’s important that students pre-order their copy in advance. Contrary to popular belief, extra copies are not ordered for sale at the end of the year – any additional copies the staff receives are damaged or overrun copies created in the production process.