Friday, May 29, 2015

Forteniter's Prom

After months of planning, the day had finally come.  In February, the opportunity had arisen for Key Club to organize a prom for a club called Forteniters.  Its a place in our community where people with mental illnesses gather once a month for a dinner.  Since I am the chair person for the community sector, I decided to take on the project.  I organized a Forteniter's Prom Committee which convened at least twice a month to decide on some important decisions. Around fifty people made a reservation for the prom and it was to be held at a church. Everyone volunteering on prom day was going to dress up as a waiter or waitress.  This was going to be such a great event to organize.

There were many areas that we had to cover: decorations, food, music, photo booth, and party favors.  We chose the theme to be Hollywood and my favorite part was decorating the prom. Over spring break I went to Party City and bought all of the decorations, like balloons, tablecloths, streamers, and a red carpet.  We had to come set up all of the decorations yesterday because today, the prom started right after school.  For food, we had the whole shebang.  We displayed some appetizers and drinks for when they first came in.  After most of the the people had arrived, we started bringing out the salads and then the chicken parmesan and pasta. To end it off, the talented chefs served some cookies and cake for dessert.  All the while, the DJ was playing great music that matched our theme and people were coming up to our photo booth to take pictures.  We had a variety of props and used a Polaroid camera.  I made some props, like sunglasses, bows, and mustaches, and loved it when people used them. After the huge meal, we all played a game: we stood in a circle and tried to keep as many balloons as we could in the air.  After that, the DJ put on some music that we danced to, like the Cha Cha Slide.  As people started to leave, they were each able to take a party favor, a popcorn bag filled with a lot of delicious candy.

One of the things we had to make sure was to stay under the budget, which was about $100 at first.  However, after much planning, we realized that we needed much more money, so we had a bake sale to raise more and doubled our budget.  The committee and I tried to publicize the prom as much as possible because we are able to receive most of our help from Key Club members.  When they bring in decorations and food for hours, it really helps us to stay under our budget.  

This was such a great opportunity for me to grow as a leader and develop my organizational skills.  My favorite part about community work is the satisfaction of knowing that you have impacted someone else in a beneficial way.  From seeing the smiles on  everyone's faces to their awesome dance moves, I have had a truly wonderful experience.

I'm giving a speech on my whole experience at the next Key Club meeting as a way to tie everything up. Here it is:
Hi guys; my name is Chelsea.  Prep for Forteniter’s Prom has been on our agenda for a while, and after extensive planning, the time finally arrived, and Forteniter’s Prom was last Friday.  It went all according to plan and very successfully.  If you don’t know already, Forteniter’s is a place where people who aren’t as privileged come to have dinner once a month.  This year we decided to spruce things up and organize a Hollywood themed prom for them.  My job was to organize the Forteniter’s Prom Committee, and starting in February, we started planning the decorations, dinner, music, photo booth, and so much more.  After all of our planning, the best part was the satisfaction of seeing everyone so happy after enjoying their night and knowing that the Forteniter’s Prom Committee was able to help them relive an important high school experience.  (((Eye contact w/ Mrs. Pretz))) I wanted to give a special thanks to Mrs. Pretz for helping, guiding, and supporting us.  I also wanted to thank each and everyone one of you that came to the brain storming sessions, went out to buy supplies, brought in the foods and drinks, gave rides to the event, came to set-up, and most importantly, came to help out on prom night.  I really appreciated this opportunity to lead this prom and work with everyone.  This prom is our way of serving our mission by giving back to the community and giving an experience to remember.  




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