The doors to the ballroom open, hundreds of eyes gaze excitedly around the room, and the night that students have been anxiously waiting for has finally begun. Many began preparing for this night weeks in advance in order to make everything just right, but for the junior class delegates, the intensive preparation began last fall. The amount of planning that went into creating one magical night all payed off on April 30th, when the juniors and seniors had their annual prom at the St. Charles Convention Center.

“All of the hard work was worth it when I went to prom and saw everybody having a good time and saying that it was decorated nicely,” junior delegate Bryce Perry said. “We had our challenges, but we worked together as a team and pulled it through.”

The planning all began in November, when the junior delegates started brainstorming for theme ideas. At their meetings, which were held twice a week, they looked through several prom magazines to get ideas. After lots of discussion and compromise, they narrowed the theme choices down to three: Grecian, Arabian nights, and fairy tale. From there, they had juniors and seniors vote for their favorite theme during lunches. Fairytale ended up having over half of the votes, making it this year’s winning theme.

“I like that they had everyone vote for a theme because it gives the class voice and a chance to help make prom tailored to everyone’s interests,” junior Shannon Lane said. “I loved the theme that we ended up choosing. It was really cute and made prom feel more magical.”

Once the theme was selected, the delegates started planning on how to incorporate it into the invitations and decorations. The invitation they chose had a silver castle on it and a red bow, which the delegates hand tied. They created their elegant centerpiece by arranging pink rose petals around a glass vase filled with water, pebbles, and a floating candle.

“I enjoyed how many options there was to choose from for the decorations,” junior delegate Victoria Fasnacht said. “However, the most difficult part about the process was having everyone agree on one thing because we all had different opinions on almost everything.”

In order to raise money for the food and decorations, the delegates hosted their annual Prom Fashion show on February 17th in the FHN auditorium. Juniors and seniors volunteered to model dresses and tuxedos from David’s Bridal, Camille La Ville, and Savvi Formalwear. The models each had to raise $25 in order to participate and tickets were sold for $5 each. Raffle tickets were sold at the show for various items that were donated such as a free tuxedo rental and a free prom ticket.

“The prom fashion show was really fun and it looked like the models really enjoyed themselves,” sophomore David Bodden said. “I think it’s a great event for the students going to prom and a great way to raise money.”

On April 29, the day before prom, students were released from their sixth hour to attend the pre-prom assembly. The assembly began with the announcement of prom court, which included juniors Cody Majesky, Michael Shine, Emily Zerbonia and Kristen Pike, as well as the seniors, Zohail Jchaj, Zohaib Abro, Chris Oswald, Nicole Morse, Taylor Ousley, and Julia Crets. After the prom announcements, a video played depicting a teen girl who suffered a severe car accident played. After the eight minute video, Sarah Panzau Evans walked in front of the junior and senior class and told her story. She told the story of how on August 23, 2003 she was in a near fatal car accident while driving with a .308 blood alcohol level. An accident, with its circumstances, that was given a 0% chance of survival. Panzau Evans suffered from many injuries including a traumatic left arm amputation, a fractured mandible-in 7 places, a degloving of the skin on the whole back of her head and left neck down to the jugular vein and many more broken bones and torn ligaments. The upperclassmen were left with a very graphic, and very real image of the effects of drunk driving.

“Not many people get to walk throughout life and impact people by telling their story,” Panzau Evans. “I’m just blessed to have that opportunity.”

When the morning of prom finally arrived, the delegates and their sponsor, Marissa Cohen, met at the convention center at 9 a.m. to set up. They brought in the decorations and began assembling all 65 of the tables and their centerpieces. Next, they dressed up the stage with banners and balloons. At around 10:30 a.m., the job was done. Everything that they had been working towards for months had finally come together.

“I liked setting up with my friends and putting all of our ideas together to make something that we thought everyone would enjoy,” junior delegate Katie Worsham said.

The morning of prom was dark and rainy, but by the afternoon, the sky cleared up and the sun appeared. This gave many students the chance to take their prom pictures outdoors. Some of the most popular places that students took pictures this year were  New Town, Main Street, and Blanchette Park.

“I went to New Town for my pictures because it was very pretty and had nice scenery,” junior Allison Murphy said. “It could have been a little more sunny, but I was glad that when I took my pictures it wasn’t raining.”

At 6:00 p.m., students started to arrive at the convention center to check in. Dinner was served at roughly 6:30, and consisted of salad, rolls, a choice of steak, chicken or ravioli and cake. After everyone was finished with their dinner, the lights in the ballroom dimmed and the dancing began. The week of the dance, students tweeted to #fhnprom16 to put in song requests.

Students voted for prom king and queen as they checked into the dance. A few hours before the night ended, everyone returned to their dinner tables so that the winner could be announced. All members of the court walked onto the stage and waited to hear the results. Seniors Chris Oswald and Julia Crets were announced as the king and queen.

“It was nice to see Chris and Julia win together,” junior Emma Meyers said. “It was just so cute and they’re both such nice people. They deserved it.”

As 11 p.m. drew nearer the final song, “Walk it Out” by DJ UnK, played. The upperclassmen grabbed their things and exited the convention center. While the students went to after parties and dinners with their friends, the chaperones and delegates stayed to clean up from the festivities.

“Overall prom was a great success,” junior delegate Sarah Temul said. “I had a lot of fun and it seemed like everyone around me was having fun. That’s what prom is all about.”