In an effort to make up for the absence of a physical Homecoming dance this September, USB organized the Homecoming court crowning late this October.

“I had just gotten out of a club meeting and sat down to play video games with my friends. My mom came into my room in the middle of a game, confused and saying there was someone at the door for me,” senior Zayn Siddique, who was chosen as homecoming king, said via Instagram. “I hadn’t really connected the dots until I saw Mrs. Van Horn at the door, and she told me I’d won.”

Voting was held online via Google Forms, as usual. USB event coordinators drove to the winners’ homes to reward and crown them, after which they took pictures that were then posted on the USB Instagram to make the official announcement to the student body.

  USB began planning this year’s Homecoming long ago, evidenced by the fact that the venue and theme had already been picked.

“At first we weren’t thinking about all the precautions we needed to take to approach [Homecoming],” Garcia said. “Once reality struck the planning slowed down because we realized it wouldn’t be that big of an event.”

Quarantine has proven to be a near-insurmountable obstacle for USB in this regard, causing event planning to be much harder than it’s been in the past. 

“We couldn’t actually plan anything but rather give out information in the hopes of the student body taking the information into consideration,” said Gabriel Martinez, a USB event coordinator. “We have been unable to affiliate Diamond Bar USB with any planned activities due to district guidelines.”

To make up for a lack of Homecoming festivities, USB created a dinner event, suggesting that students who wanted to celebrate Homecoming go and eat with their friends at one of many suggested restaurants in lieu of a dance.

“We advertised it on the Diamond Bar USB Instagram and we also gave [students] a list of dine-in restaurants,” Martinez said. “Due to our district rules we were not able to properly advertise it and all we were able to do is give students the information. Our planning process was very different this year because we weren’t able to have an actual homecoming”

Martinez said that the organization has not made plans for future dances, however they may potentially look into hosting a virtual dance if students are interested.

“I think that this has been a little bit of a learning curve for all of USB and even planning. This was my last event that I will plan because my USB term will end,” Martinez said. “One thing we need to keep working on is engaging the student body to the best of our ability. I would say that when we get new USB members I am sure they will do a great job.”

It is unknown whether USB will be able to hold any in-person events, since decisions relating to in-person gatherings and events are up to the district.