April marks one the biggest events of the year: junior prom. As students are finding their prom dates and picking out their suits and dresses, we often forget an essential piece; the planning. Setting up for prom means finding a venue, making the seating arrangements, choosing a theme, getting the catering food. This year, the junior Student Coalition (Stuco) and the junior class advisors were on it to plan the perfect prom.
Junior Class Advisor Paul Gallo is always a step ahead when it came to planning. “The year before we make the reservation, so that’s the first thing,” Mr. Gallo said. “We then start looking at it with Student Coalition, and then when the new year rolls around we start the planning process.”
Junior prom was hosted at the Italian Center in Stamford. This has been the location of Junior Prom for the last 30 years, with the exception of the past three years due to a fire and a conflict with the date. Mr. Gallo explains a little about why he was excited for prom to be held back at the Italian Center. “Last year we went to Giovanni’s in Darien, but it was a tough venue. It had great food and was great place, but it was small trying to fit everyone,” Mr. Gallo explained. “It was a nice switch to go back to a bigger setting where it’s a little easier to have everybody together.”
Choosing the day prom is going to be on also takes hard work to figure out. “You have to look at what day testing is on and what’s going on. We then get the date, go to the venue a year in advance, and give them a deposit,” Mr. Gallo said.
Once the venue is reserved and in place, a theme has to be chosen. Junior Class President Theo Kammerer explains how the theme of New York was chosen for this years prom. “We thought it would be cool to have the skyline and the cool city lights,” Theo said. “We decided that city theme would be an awesome way to get modern lights and a nightlife theme.”
Afterwards, the decorations must be made. “We had to think of the decorations and how we were going to follow that theme, like the tables and the colors,” Theo said. “For the photobooth and entrance into the venue, we added lights and blue sparkling strimmers to really stick to the New York theme.”
Decorations are made in advance by the Stuco members themselves. “Over break we painted and got the tables set up, and all the decorations were finished weeks in advance,” Theo said.
This year, NCHS decided to try selling tickets virtually, something they have never done before. “This is the first year we did School Cash Online, and it worked out great,” Mr. Gallo said. “You just buy your tickets online and then you are able to choose your table.”
For tables, it is all about first come first serve. Once students buy their ticket, they can go up to Mr. Gallo during lunch and choose the table they want to sit at based on a seating chart. The chart is then placed on display at the actual prom for students to remind themselves where they are seated.
Something that everyone looks forward to at prom is the food. “We meet as a group during a Stuco meeting and go over what we think we want to have,” Mr. Gallo said. “You have your basic choices, what type of chicken you want, what type of pasta you want, and what type of fish you want.”
Of course, music is an important factor that allows students to have a fun time at prom. A DJ is chosen and booked back in September to make sure it is scheduled. Theo then reached out to the junior class asking for song requests so he could then inform the DJ.
This year, Stuco decided to plan an official pre prom for the Junior class, something that usually doesn’t happen. “We posted in Facebook and asked if anyone was willing to try to rent out their country club, but no one really responded, so we figured since Waveny is one of our public parks in New Canaan we could probably reach out to them,” Theo said. “We were able to get the lawn park area, but they were setting something up on the inside, so we couldn’t get that.” Unfortunately, the bad weather caused the pre prom to be cancelled, so people hosted small pre proms at their respective houses.
Anna Moody, the other Junior Class advisor, contributed to the planning of prom by overseeing the work Stuco was doing. “I just made sure deadlines were met: picking a theme, buying the decorations, decorating the venue,” Ms. Moody said. “The students did all the work, I just helped to keep them on track.”
Overall, Mr. Gallo and Theo were very excited for prom. “It is going to be a great time. It was a great venue, it just got rebuilt and it looks new and fantastic,” Mr. Gallo said. “You always have fun. You go hang out with your friends and dance the whole time.”
Because of the work that Stuco and the junior advisors did together, prom was able to come together. “It was our grade working in unison,” Theo said. “We didn’t need to be assigned to anything. We were all working towards a common goal and we all had equal motivation so nobody needed to be told what to do, everybody just did what they had to do to get it done.”
