Students at Spring Valley Academy Serve as Joyful Volunteers at Gala

Story by Angela Peach

The Spring Valley Academy (SVA) gala is a yearly event that raises money for big projects on campus. Over the years, the gala has helped to raise nearly a million dollars for the Fritzsche Worship and Performing Arts Center, and more recently, proceeds have benefitted the fundraising for the newly completed Dean and Trudy Johnson High School Wing.

At the recent 2025 event, “The Feast of the Realm Gala,” the generosity of the SVA community was again felt through sponsorships, donations and volunteerism. While the final fundraising total is still being tallied, the hard work of parents, community members, staff and students is starkly evident. An event of this magnitude—an attendance range of 250 to 325 guests each year at an event that features donated auction items, a full dinner and entertainment—takes a lot of work from many creative and hardworking people. In the past few years, that group has also included more student involvement.

This year, more than 40 students from grades 5–12 served appetizers and helped with the dinner service and cleanup. In addition, more than 50 students presented a concert preceding dinner, which featured a select high school choir and the varsity high school band, with some of those students participating in music during dinner as well. To go along with the event’s medieval theme, student council officers headed a table, serving as the “Feast of the Realm” royalty, complete with rented costumes.

Senior Harper Oberer says, “These last couple of years have been fun because there have been more students participating in the event. I think parents and community members like seeing the students involved and seeing the people who most directly benefit from their donations.”

For some of the student helpers, the gala provided them with the opportunity to complete some of their required community service hours. “We do need community service hours,” Oberer acknowledges, “but we also enjoy being a part of something special like the gala. It didn’t feel like work, really. It was fun.”

Sixth-grader Norah Long, who has helped with the past three galas, agrees: “It’s fun to help and get dressed up. Students my age like being included in this kind of thing. I want to be part of it as long as I can!”

Event coordinators think students are crucial to the event going forward. They say students make the event even more special and are the reason they host this gala every year. It only seems right that they get to be part of it too, they add.