Ever since its start, the Chocolate Lounge has been known for its baked goods and musical attractions, but this year, the junior class aims to take the event to new heights. The planning committee made up of members of the class of 2025, came up with new ideas to hopefully increase turnout for the event. In past years the occasion had activities such as a bake sale, a jazz performance, and an auction, all of which will continue to occur despite new additions to this year’s event. This year’s Chocolate Lounge debuts new additions such as a cakewalk, a chocolate piñata, larger raffle prizes, and even a chance for students to pie their favorite teacher.

Even though the Chocolate Lounge is changing, its main goal remains to raise money for the Patrick ’98 and Elisa ’02 Savageau Memorial Endowment Fund and the Krystal Heitman Memorial Endowment, the two funds alternate years getting the profits from the Chocolate Lounge. This year’s initiative, the Savageau Memorial Endowment, was started by Michael and Ann Savageau after their son Patrick’s death in a climbing accident and was also put under their daughter Elisa’s name after she passed due to an illness. All proceeds from the chocolate lounge go towards supporting students who need help to participate in school and to honor the memories of Patrick and Elisa Savageau. With such an important task needed to be done well, event facilitator Stephanie Miller ’86 credits the junior class for keeping the event fresh and well run.

“The juniors make the event exciting with their new visions and ideas, they really own it,” said Miller, who plans to sell raffle tickets at the Chocolate Lounge. “ It’s only my second year being a part of the event but I can already see the amount of commitment all the students put into the process.”

While every junior plays their part, the task of planning the event belongs to the logistics committee where the students work to make sure everything is accounted for. Whether it be planning decorations and deciding which rooms to use or getting the right amount of food, the logistics committee will take care of it. Logistics committee co-chair Ishan Leahy ’25 said he has spent his time sending an extensive amount of emails in preparation for the event.

“My job is that I need to make sure everything is able to happen during the Chocolate Lounge with no issues,” said Leahy. “I have to make sure we have permission to use certain rooms and spaces as well as find teachers who will volunteer to help run the event and who want to get pied in the face.” 

Getting a whole grade of students to function together and plan out the event is not easy but event co-chair Meera Tewari’25 has been making it work. 

“We have had weekly meetings with all the different committees to make sure everyone is accomplishing what they need to and that we will be ready for the event,” said Tewari. “I am looking forward to seeing what our grade can do better than last year, and how our new activities will improve the event.”

In order to raise the most money for the event the Juniors had to make sure that enough people would come to the Chocolate Lounge. Sales committee co-chair Sophie Erb-Watson ‘25 has made it her goal to raise as much money as possible for the event.

“I have been reaching out to parents and asking for donations and also trying to use   Greenhills’ e-forum to spread the word of the event,” said Erb-Watson. “It’s a lot of work but with my classmates’ support, I feel much more confident in our final product.”

To meet the expected turnout of this year’s Chocolate Lounge, this years committee has worked hard to get the right amount of baked goods.

“Getting cupcakes and cakes in particular has been really challenging for us,” said Leahy. “Because we want everything to be homemade, it is hard to find parents and faculty who are able to make such a large quantity.”