A Night Under The Stars

The night to remember for every high school student is prom. A night filled with fun, memories, and dressing your best. Although dancing around Covid restrictions this year, Pennridge still plans on the class of 2021 having the best prom they can. Many consider prom to be a milestone in high school. It is one of the last times students get to be with their friends before moving onto graduation and the next chapter of their lives. Many girls have awaited the whole ordeal of getting ready. Hair and nail appointments, dress chaos, and makeup application are stressful but an event itself nonetheless. Prom this year has three themes that include: Class of 2021, Pennridge Proud, and A Night Under the Stars. The doors open at 7 p.m., there will be “swag bags” provided, including snacks since there is no meal, and tickets are free. It was also recently announced students could bring underclassmen as guests. Mr. Hegen, the senior class principal, said the reasoning behind free entry is “that students already pay a lot just to get ready for the prom, they shouldn’t have to pay for anything additional, especially when many don’t go to prom because they can’t afford it. We wanted it to be more of a celebration, and we didn’t have a junior prom”.

The main dance floor will be on the turf to avoid any congestion and help with social distancing; however, mask-wearing will still be mandated. There will be fireworks to end the memorable night under the stars, provided by the Biden stimulus given to our school as Dr. Bolton approved the spending. Although Mr. Hegen had to intervene more than usual to make this prom spectacular, he stresses that “it’s not about me; it’s about doing what’s right for over 600 seniors”. Liv Stolarski is a member of the senior executive council. The executive council is in charge of fundraising and planning their class’s prom. With no junior prom last year they chose to stick with the same theme, making decisions based on guidelines this year. While they are trying to make this year as normal as possible, the council understands that this year is different from others. When asked if the opinion of the student body helped influence their decisions, Liv said, “Yes, because you can never make everyone happy; someone is going to complain. You can’t please everyone. We tried our best to make the students happy as we are the voice for them, so we took all ideas and worked with them”.  She also stated that they have been working on this since junior year and didn’t stop the planning even when things looked uncertain. Between the hard work of the executive council, supervision from the senior class principal, and input from the students themselves, one thing that is for sure is that there has been effort and dedication put into giving the class of 2021 a night to remember. This year may not be a so-called “normal” prom, but it will be a night that stays with the students forever.