Is anyone involved in their kids' after prom party? I would like some new ideas, instead of what is done year after year. I was wondering what activities and entertainment is at the party. What gifts or door prizes are given and if the kids are expected to pay or volunteer in order to attend or be eligible for prizes? And how do you select the chaperones?
We have a meeting Monday to discuss what activities we want and how we are going to present the idea of kids needing to volunteer at the various fundraisers. So far we have only had about 10% of the class volunteer.
No experience here with after prom but when DS was in high school it was a grad night - this program was run by the parents and generally staffed (chaperones) by underclassmen parents so that graduating senior parents could enjoy their company/visitors/personal parties. Chaperones had to be 18 (not in high school) and commit to a time slot - one year I was a door monitor from 1-4 am - can't "lock" them in (fire codes etc) but the rule was once signed in they could not leave until the time parents expected their departures (6am)
We had lots of food - snacks, junk, pizza and sub sandwiches - we would introduce a new staple twice during the evening - pizza upon arrival and then sandwiches at 3 am followed by breakfast muffins, juice and sausage at 5:30am
Usually hired a hypnotist as well - the kids really enjoyed that
the rest of the time was taken up with the gym filled with bounce houses, bungie runs (the inflatable thing) - pretty much anything inflatable that was out there we had
Also had the adult size trikes, we hosted races throughout the night, when not in a race the kids could use them and zipped all over the place
of course music (DJ) and dancing - we also had a quite corner where they could sit, chill and just visit with each other (or nap)
Every year had a theme and decor and accessories to match - ie hawaiian night kids got leis & straw hats and were encouraged to wear hawaiian shirts/shorts.
Fundraising was done by parents - usually in conjunction with athletic events - 50/50 raffles etc.
Also, there were a few years where we were involved with the grad night organization and received a bit of funding from them as well which I think came from M.A.D.D.
Kids paid to attend - I believe in 2008 the rate was $45 a head - the one rule for grad night was it was class members only - no dates or friends unless part of the class
I would assume with a prom you would need to include their dates
We did raffles as well as gifts/door prizes - we tried to get as many community donations as possible which were usually gift cards for restaurants or the bowling center, water park etc.
the end of the night we did a balloon drop and some of the balloons had prizes or cash inside of them.
I've been avoiding DD's Grad night here in Texas as I burnt myself out on those parent dance mommy mentality events when DS was in high school and now prefer to stick to less drama - I'm one of the judges for an upcoming debate tournament and I am in charge of checking in runners for the spring Fun Run 5K at DD's school hosted by the Athletic Training Dept of which she is an active member.
she decided about a month and a half ago to take the ACTs with no warning and did fairly decent. Now wants to take them again in Feb. Now it looks like it will be awhile before we know any concrete merit information. My other daughter had her acceptance papers with merit scholarship info by Xmas of her senior year.
