Students were able to dress up and dance the night away at this year’s junior prom held at Aqua Turf in Plainville, Connecticut. The junior class asked friends or dates to celebrate this annual event which took place on the evening of April 9 this year.

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Juniors Julia Cohn and Mary Schoenerr

The event started when the students arrived at 6:30 p.m. and after the necessary precaution, the night began with photos and socializing before leading to dinner, activities and dancing.

Long term preparation came with the big occasion. Dates had to organize things such as where they would buy their corsages and boutineers, which group of people they were planning to go with, the perfect location for pictures and how they would catch a ride.

Junior Margaret Costello was one of the members on the student council who helped plan this event.

“There was a lot of work that we had to put into it but it was worth it. We had to decide the tablecloth color, lighting color, the arrangement of tables, the types of food and dessert and what time we wanted it to start and end. We also had to collect money and record all of the information correctly to make sure the guest lists were correct and make sure everyone got what they wanted,” Costello said.

Aside from the planning aspect of the night, Costello said that her favorite part about prom was being able to take pictures with all her friends and see everyone in a different event and setting.

After a brief social hour, the food was ready to be served and people sat down to eat. They could choose to have New York Strip Sirloin, Chicken a la Kathryn (baked breaded chicken breast with wine sauce), Chicken Parmigiana (lightly breaded, mozzarella, marinara sauce) or Vegetarian Eggplant Parmigiana.

Next, the students participated in a musical chairs-style scavenger hunt, where one person from each table had to leave their chairs to find an object in the room as announced by the DJ. If that person did not make it back to their chair in time with that object, they were out. In the end, junior Maryrose Tierney was declared the winner over junior Alec Gereg.

Following the game was a time for dancing. There were multiple different genres of songs and at one point there were even dance battles going on between friend groups.

“My favorite part about prom was my epic dance-off between me, Thomas Heath-Ringrose and Max Cohen,” junior Zach Schaedler said.

Later in the night, the staff at the Aqua Turf opened up a sundae bar where students could go and get dessert. A photo booth was also opened and kids took more photos in there before the festivities died down around 11:30 p.m.

Towards the end of the evening, juniors Eric Chiarillo and Kelly Tragash were named as Prom King and Queen, respectively.

Overall, the night was filled with unforgettable moments for the juniors and they look forward to their senior prom next year.

Gereg said, “I think that the event overall was really fun. The competitiveness of musical chairs was also really fun. The event really was well planned and seeing everyone in fancy clothes and having a good time was really memorable for me.”