“What if we don’t hit it again,” junior Sadie Smith said to herself.

With the final day to buy a yearbook approaching, Smith was under so much stress. Being the sales section editor for yearbook, she felt it was her responsibility to reach their goal of selling 1100 yearbooks. The section of three had done everything possible since the beginning of the school year that they could to get people to buy their yearbooks.

“It’s going to be fine,” Smith eventually told herself. “It won’t be your fault if we don’t meet the goal.”

Whether or not they reach their goal, Smith knew it wasn’t going to be the section or her own fault because they made a lot of posters and they posted about it on their social media.

Two weeks before the deadline, it was announced that if yearbook met their goal to sell 1100 yearbooks, Assistant Principals Gary Brain and Blake Muskiet would shave their heads and Jaren Bollinger would dye her hair.

“Basically me and Taylor took our ideas to Mr. Brain and then he took our ideas to the AP meeting and then they came back with their own idea, which was the hair thing, so they kind of had that idea,” Smith said.

Since the AP’s were willing to change their hair in a big way for them, they were mostly excited to be the reason to motivate students to buy their yearbooks.

“I have no problem doing silly stuff and doing things to myself like that if it’s to benefit the kids and to motivate them,” Muskiet said.

The other AP’s who participated were also glad to be apart of the deal like Bollinger, for example.

“I’ve always wanted to do something silly with my hair, this just gave me a reason,” Bollinger said. “As long as it’s students asking me to do something for students I’m usually on board. I don’t mind looking a bit silly if it’s for something I feel is worthwhile…student causes are almost always worthwhile.”

Since Bollinger wasn’t willing to go as far as shaving her own head, dyeing her hair was the next big thing. This also gave the cosmetology girls to work more on hair dyeing. Leading up to the event, everyone was wondering what the actual color would be, but Bollinger eventually decided on a purple/pink combination.

“I did have a consult with cosmetology who gave their suggestions…ultimately it was my decision though,” Bollinger said.

There was also an ongoing joke that Muskiet barely had any hair to begin with, yet he decided to participate. Muskiet was aware of the little bit of hair he had, and wasn’t ashamed to go along with the joke.

“You’re correct I didn’t have a lot of hair so shaving it off for me was no issue,” Muskiet said. “I’ve got no problem doing things like that to help out the kids.”

Brain agreed that dyeing the beard was impulsive and a spur of the moment. He also decided on the color.

“I told them to do it black because the stuff that was not gray was kind of black so I figured it was the best one to go with,” Brain said.

The cosmetology girls that helped had different experiences with the different AP’s, but all agreed that they didn’t feel any pressure.

“I mean it was for fun and games, so it wasn’t necessarily pressure but my name was [associated with] it,” senior Madison Ortego said.

Senior Mariela Lopez worked alongside Ortego on Bollinger’s hair.

“It was different because she [Madison] did half of it,” Lopez said. “Madison did the top and I just had to put pink and blend it through.”

Senior Millicent Day helped shave Brain’s head and also to dye his beard once he asked to do it.

“I did it with another girl,” Day said. “At first I shaved it and she shaved it shaved it with shaving cream and then we both dyed the beard together. No one planned it, he just asked in the middle of the service and we agreed and we had time.”

As proud as the AP’s were about yearbook reaching their goal they did have a bit of doubt considering the timeline.

“When we started it, they were so far away I didn’t think that they would [reach their goal] but I’m overjoyed that they did,” Brain said. “They were so far away from getting their goal that I was like “alright they probably won’t, so maybe I’ll get lucky” but I was so happy and excited that they did.”

Of course with the number of books sold being around 880 on the last week, Smith was stressed about reaching the goal but dealt with it the best she could.

“I kept on telling myself that it would be fine and that it wouldn’t be my fault because I did tend to think that it would be my fault but it wouldn’t,” Smith said. “Also I kept telling myself that Mr. Muskiet’s callout will go out then that’ll get parents’ [attention]. And I would tell myself ‘most people wait until the last day’.”

And as Smith said, a lot of people did wait until the last day to buy their yearbook even when the deadline was extended just one extra day. Sales section improved from last year despite only having three members.

“Last year the sales team was seven people and it was a lot and we did get a lot done, [but] this year when I got my section I was nervous about only having three people because I was like ‘will we ever get stuff done?’ but we did and I’m really proud of my section,” Smith said.

Although there was some doubt about making the goal, the AP’s were hoping that yearbook would reach their goal because they understand how important it is to have them throughout high school and they want the students to understand the importance.

“I think a lot of kids don’t realize the importance of the yearbook until sometimes they’re already graduated and gone and they don’t have a way to think back and look at classmates and different memories and different events,” Muskiet said. “I mean I have all four of my yearbooks from when I was in high school and that’s been thirty years, so I think it’s very important.”

They also understand that social media does exist and that the internet will be around for a while, but they also know that your memories won’t be there forever like yearbook will.

“Now it’s so easy to access your past with different media/technology outlets,” Bollinger said. “It’s also so easy for things to be altered or lost. A yearbook cannot be altered. Every picture I need to represent that school year is in one place. If I can get my hands on one book, I have an immediate index of 3500 students and countless memories. As wonderful and advanced as technology is, there are some things it will never be able to replace or replicate.”