Prom

Picture perfect prom

Junior class sponsors, o cers prepare, promote prom

Malak Samara samarmal000@hsestudents.org

As juniors and seniors anticipate the long awaited prom and start preparing venue is just as essential to the success of prom. According to Riordan, the venue should be the bigger focus for the event by picking out dresses or suits, planning promposals and deciding what their plans will be a er the dance, a lot of thought and time goes into the planning of the actual event. Promotion, theme execution and preparing the venue are some of the tasks the junior sponsors and class o cers take on in order to ensure prom is successful. “I personally love the opportunity to serve our students in our community by [planning prom with the junior class sponsors],” junior class sponsor Stephanie Gutting said. Junior class o cers are typically given the task to promote prom and relay the correct information to the rest of the juniors and seniors. is includes basic information like where prom is being held but also speci c information such as how to park at the venue and how to get tickets for guests. A lot of planning goes into the promotion to guarantee that the event goes smoothly. “I think promoting the right information is important because if people are informed they are more likely to go,” junior class o cer April Brownell said. “I love promoting or nding creative ways to push out information. is year when I got an email asking if I could help promote information about the dance I was very happy to do so.” In order to make prom more engaging, a theme is chosen every year that makes sense with the circumstances. is year’s theme is the ‘Roaring 20s.’ “We are super excited to have that theme because we wanted to do it in 2020 but prom got canceled,” prom supervisor Sarah Riordan said. “So we were really excited to actually get to redeem 2020.” While the theme is important, the because a new one is chosen every year which means the overall feel of prom is unpredictable. “Every year the venue changes the feel of the energy,” Riordan said. “[ is year] we are going to the children’s museum.” Gutting believes that not only does the children’s museum emulate high energy, but it also allows students to relive their youth while also being at an event that symbolizes their transition into adult life. “I think this is such a cool venue because the children’s museum is nostalgic for most of us,” Brownell said. “To be able to come back as upperclassmen will feel like a full circle moment.” Due to the popularization of the event, a lot of planning has been put into it from the sponsors. According to Gutting, planning with her co-sponsors, Riordan and Phillip Albonetti, made it more enjoyable. “I love working with Mrs. Riordan and Mr. Albonetti,” Gutting said. “ e three of us are sponsors together and we just have so much fun planning. Everything is just very fun with the two of them.” As much as planning may be fun for the sponsors, as prom approaches, they become heavily preoccupied with the work and ensuring that everything comes together. “Every day is super busy right now,” Riordan said. “But it is a nice lead up to the event. We put a lot of time and e ort planning it, so it is a lot of fun on the adult side to see it come to fruition.” To the sponsors, they see the kids’ happiness as compensation for the e ort they put into the event. Riordan said that it was satisfying seeing her students start to get excited for prom because she felt a sense of ful llment since she was a part of the planning for it. “[I am most excited to] see all the kids dressed up and happy,” Gutting said. “I love being at prom and seeing the accomplishment, especially from the seniors.” Furthermore, prom is about the bigger picture of high school. Junior class o cer Malik Arab believes that it shows students that the high school experience is about more than just studying and being stressed about school. “I love the holistic part of high school,” Riordan said. “I love the extracurriculars, I love the spirit days, I love Friday night football games. I think this is a huge motivation for me to see kids enjoying something besides just their academics.” However, some students in the past did miss out on the essential high school experience because of COVID-19. Gutting hopes that students now will take advantage of going to prom this year to make up for missing out on many events because of the pandemic. “I think especially a er COVID, prom this year [focused on] supporting our seniors and juniors,” Arab said. “I think it is a really good way to nally reconvene a er COVID’s [e ects].” Prom is believed to be an essential American cultural event. It is a symbol of learning, friendship, school spirit and the sense of community the school can bring out in all of the students. “My biggest piece of advice would be that you are only going to have so many proms, like whether or not you are scared to go,” Arab said. “ e worst case scenario is you have a bad time. On the other hand, there is so much room for just having fun and you do not want to risk missing out just because you were nervous to go.”

community the school can bring out “My biggest piece of advice would you are scared to go,” Arab said. “ e worst case scenario is you have a bad just because you were nervous to go.”