In an effort to bring the community together while still observing COVID-19 guidelines, Jesuit High School Sacramento invited students, parents, faculty, and staff to watch “Men in Black” at West Wind Sacramento 6 Drive-In Theater on Wednesday, Sept. 9. 

Last May, because of the pandemic, the school premiered “We Are One,” an original movie created to honor the graduating seniors. It was a positive experience for the Class of 2020 and so Jesuit was hoping to bring the same level of joy to its current students with this event. 

It appears Jesuit hit the mark as Joe Ryan ’21, one of the students in attendance, was thankful for a chance to safely socialize with friends. 

“The event allowed me to reconnect with people I hadn’t seen in months, and I am very grateful that Jesuit put on the event,” Joe said. 

Andres Sandoval ’21 felt the drive-in movie was a valuable opportunity for members of the school’s community to forget about the various issues many are facing due to the pandemic. 

“I believe it’s super important to have these types of events especially right now where our futures seem to be very uncertain as opposed to before,” Andres said. “Having these types of gatherings allows us to finally load off some steam and forget about the problems that we’ve been struggling with this past summer.”

After seeing how the movie was a way for the Jesuit community to experience something normal during this uncertain and unprecedented time, Principal Dr. Michael Wood ’99 is open to holding more events soon.

“We do think we should attempt similar events this semester and we are planning for that possibility now,” Dr. Wood said. “Community building is critical so anything we can do to support [the] community and brotherhood is being considered. We also want to ensure that safety remains our number one priority.”

The Executive Council is also trying to organize some virtual gatherings for students. 

“The student council and I have been working on a lot of ideas that we are gonna be rolling out in the next couple weeks and months,” said Vice President Jake Hall ’21. “Even though everything is virtual we still have some activities that will be able to be virtual at least for now that we think will really engage the students with the school that aren’t academic-related. It’ll be something fun to participate in virtually.”

Regardless of what’s to come, the drive-in movie brought the Jesuit community together in-person for the first time in months and made for a night to remember.