In the weeks leading up to Homecoming week at Lemont High School, the hallways are gradually decorated with posters, chatter begins to flurry among students and the runaway train that is homecoming gets gassed up.
Yet, how exactly does “the Superbowl of homecomings,” as Angela Duensing, one of the sponsors of LHS’ Student Council, dubs it, come to fruition? The Student Council offers us a peek under the hood!
Maintenance begins way earlier than the average student may think. Initial preparation and planning begins before the end of the previous school year. Once Student Council officially assembles at the start of the first semester, they hit the ground running.
“It starts pretty early with just the picking of the days and then publicizing them […] so much of it is just getting the word out…that’s probably like our first big step,” Kathryn Kupchek, co-sponsor of Student Council, said.
From designing posters to be hung around the school, advertised on the TVs around LHS, to curating content for the official Lemont Student Council Instagram, @lemonthsstudentcouncil, students break into committees and get to work planning what they hope to be “a memorable Homecoming,” Kupchek said.
And the making of said memories is exactly how Kupchek loves to see Lemont Homecoming benefit the community on a larger scale.
“I just think it’s awesome that all these kids are thinking about all this over the weekend, planning weeks in advance,” Kupchek said. “Everybody’s planning and working together and … I think it really brings everybody together and gets us so pumped and excited.”
However, for Duensing, the impact of Homecoming is measured in gift cards and canned food just as much as it is disco boots and cowboy hats.
“My favorite thing, to be honest, is the charity part of it,” Duensing said. “I don’t think a lot of people know that we have kids in our school that need help financially and so… those gift cards are super important and they help these kids out throughout the year. So I’m just really proud of the amount of money that the school comes together and earns.”
This year, Student Council is working with LHS’ National Honor Society (NHS) to raise money to go towards the Lemont v. Hunger Feed 6 event that transpires at the end of the school year in 2026.
“It’s so much money to pay for all of the food that needs to go in those bags…we usually raise thousands of dollars, so to help them get that leg up to make this more possible,” Kupchek said.
In previous years, Student Council has partnered with Cal’s Angels in collaboration with the LHS football team and with the #EllieStrong Forever Foundation that operates in the heart of Lemont with many LHS students acting as members.
In one year, the amount of meals packed during Lemont v. Hunger grew 25%, packing 100,000 meals in 2024 and achieving their goal of 125,000 meals packed last year in 2025.
“This year it’ll be interesting to see how our contribution, hopefully, makes [the number of meals packed] even higher,” Kupchek said.
Student Council puts the gas in the tank that is Homecoming at LHS, making it a well-oiled machine they hope everyone can hop aboard and enjoy.
“I know it’s fueled by competition, of course, but the bigger, greater good is “look what we did,’” Duensing said, while Kupchek shares a final message for the student body.
“Life’s too short. Have fun, get dressed up, make the memories,” Kupchek said.
