Abbie Dymond, Managing Editor
@abbiedcourant
Every year, students, parents, and community members gather in the auditorium to watch the annual RamJam, a fundraising fashion show for the senior post-prom party. RamJam showcases the latest prom fashion, featuring glamorous dresses from Winged Monkey, sleek suits from Camillo’s, upbeat music, and fun skits, making it a hard-to-miss event.
This year’s RamJam which was held on March 31st, was co-chaired by Jaime Smith and Monica Stallings and was emceed by seniors Jake Bausman and Victoria Lockhart. The event also featured music from a local band called “To An Extent”.
With a packed audience, the fashion-music fundraiser was a great success and raised more money than last year’s show, with a total of $15,148 raised for the senior post-prom party, which will be held at the Waveny House.
For senior Ellie Parkhill, choosing her dress for RamJam was straight out of a Disney movie. “They take us all to Winged Monkey, and you sign up for a time slot with between five and ten other girls. They bring out all these different dresses; they ask you your size and kind of what colors you’re thinking. It’s literally as many dresses as you want until you find one that you like,” Ellie said.
The boy models had a similar experience at Camillo’s, although choosing a suit was much simpler than choosing a dress. “You just went to Camillo’s whenever you had the time; they took your measurements and then brought the suit to high school the day of RamJam,” senior Matt Salmini said. “It was a really simple process; I didn’t even have to pick out a suit; they did it for us.”
Participating in a skit, another key aspect of RamJam, was perhaps less straightforward than choosing your attire. “Although planning the skit was a little stressful, the experience was so much fun. I don’t know how we pulled off the choreography, but somehow we did. It was like an episode of Dance Moms,” Ellie said.
While it’s understandable that some may be anxious to model and act in the show, the atmosphere created by the audience makes the experience much more supportive and accepting. “The audience is made up of a bunch of community members and NCHS students that people participating in the show know are coming to support them. So you have a really lively audience that is very responsive to whatever you’re doing,” Ellie said. “There’s definitely a rush that comes with performing, whether you’re a performer, whether you call yourself a performer or not, there’s a rush that comes with it,” she said.
The time commitment that comes with RamJam was unexpected for Ellie. “During the upcoming week, I think we had three rehearsals at school,” she said. “I was in two skits, so independently with my singing group we spent 45 minutes in the choir room picking a song, and that was kind of the extent of our rehearsal,” Ellie said.
Ellie was able to showcase her musical abilities during her singing skit with some of her choir peers also participating in RamJam. “It was a really cool opportunity for me as a vocalist. I know that the other three guys in choir with me saw the opportunity similarly. The choir is more organized singing, so to get up and perform something contemporary was such a special experience,” Ellie said.
Aside from rehearsing the skits, the actual modeling itself was another time commitment. “It was a two-hour rehearsal Wednesday and Thursday for all the models. There are four modeling groups, so depending on your group, your rehearsal time could be anywhere from half an hour to the full two hours and change,” Ellie said. Nevertheless, Ellie doesn’t think anyone regretted the time that they put in to the event.
RamJam is much more than fun-filled, as it brings the community together and helps give the senior class a memorable last hurrah at the post-prom party. “By supporting RamJam and participating in RamJam, you are supporting what makes a really, really memorable high school experience and senior year,” Ellie said. “RamJam will be one of those events and one of those moments that me and all my friends and everyone else will look back on and that will stand out on our individual NCHS timelines,” she said.
