By Aly Miranda | Photo courtesy mmatins / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND |
Despite the small number of seniors fundraising for prom this year, Principal Melvin Echard will let the fundraising tradition continue as the selection process for prom royalty. The money from the fundraisers will be going to the National Down Syndrome Society.
“I think in today’s economy, it’s difficult for students to make any time to run because of school and jobs interfering with each other,” Aquatics teacher and junior class sponsor for prom Liesa Byler said. “But hopefully next year, with earlier announcements, there will be more seniors fundraising.”
With school work and a job on the side, some students who were in the running for prom had to drop out because time couldn’t be balanced equally.
“I dropped out [of the running] because I realized I didn’t have enough time to do all of the fundraising plus my school and job,” senior Crystal Moreland said.
Only two seniors have been fundraising and will be the King and Queen at prom on May 11, which starts at 8 p.m. and ends at 11 p.m.
“I do hope it [the tradition] continues this year. It’s such a unique way of voting for Prom King and Queen,” English Dean teacher Heather Farmer said.
In the past, there have been up to 30 students running and fundraising for prom court. English III teacher and junior class sponsor Savannah McDonald said with many students fundraising, there have been up to $6,000 when she first started working here, over $3,000 in her second year and $2,000 last year.
“I know it’s hard to fundraise with the way our economy is like. Contributions are dwindling,” McDonald said. “But it’s a really good thing Mr. Echard is letting the tradition continue. Next year, we’re going to announce [about the fundraiser for prom] to teachers earlier, talk about in a faculty meeting and hope for more [students fundraising].”
The fundraising done by seniors has been going on about 15 years, and was the idea of English teacher and Junior class sponsor John Treanor, who has now been retired for about 10 years. Treanor was the junior class sponsor for prom and wanted something different than a popularity contest.
“The way we get our King and Queen isn’t a popularity contest, it’s something good and we’re the only ones out of this district to do it,” Farmer said. “It proves that the people we look up to [the prom King and Queen] are based on something deeper than how popular they are.”
One of the seniors, ETA student Gabi Torrez has been talking about this since her freshman year with her family.
“I have a four year old cousin with down syndrome which is why I’ve really been pushing the fundraising for this year because it means something to me,” Torrez said. “I’ve been selling shirts and candy and I’ve been asking adults for donations.”