Congratulations to our 2019 after-prom and graduation grant winners!
$2,000 Grant Award – Cattaraugus Little Valley, Cattaraugus County, NY
Cattaraugus Little Valley is throwing our first ever After Prom, called “Clown Around and Have Fun at the After-Prom Carnival!” In rural Cattaraugus County, Western New York, there are limited options for after-prom activities. The nearest large city (Buffalo) is more than 50 miles and a 90-minute car ride away. No entertainment or restaurant facilities in the nearby towns stay open through post-prom hours. A dedicated and loving group of parents from the Cattaraugus-Little Valley (CLV) School District are excited to give students the opportunity to have fun “clowning around” in an alcohol/substance-free environment at the CLV Post-Prom Carnival; a new, free event filled with activities, food, entertainment and terrific prizes. The event committee put together a prize display case and adds one high-ticket prize each week to keep the students interested and checking back to see what awesome prize is added. To promote and explain the event, they have an assembly with the students during school hours where they talk up the activities and prizes. Students earn raffle tickets by participating in carnival games throughout the night. The raffle will take place toward the end of the carnival in the early morning hours to encourage the students to stay for the entire event and have fun! The event is FREE and open to all students whether they attend the prom or not. All are welcome to the Cattaraugus after-prom party!
$1000 Grant Award – Independence Academy, Brockton, MA
Prom is so important to our students, because you need to understand what makes our students unique. Every student who attends Independence Academy has made the brave decision to leave their hometown high schools to attend IA in order to make a change around their substance use. These brave students work tirelessly to not just do well academically, but to make the life changing, and often lifesaving, decision to be in recovery. Our students do miss out on many typical experiences that other high school students get to enjoy, such as sports, homecoming, and other after school events. They face innumerable obstacles, and often can feel isolated and judged. Our Recovery Prom allows all of our students to have a slice of well-deserved normalcy. The Independence Academy prom is an annual event for all students, not just upperclassmen. Our Prom serves as a testament to our students that they can enjoy a sober high school rite of passage, and enable them to envision future sober parties, events, and life experiences. This amazing event is free to students and is not just a prom because it symbolizes a promise to our students that it is possible to have fun, be a teenager, and feel fulfilled while sober. We utilize the prom as a celebration of recovery where students can feel a sense of freedom to be more than a label, but just teenagers at a prom.
$500 Grant Award – Methacton High School, Eagleville, PA
Methacton Post Prom provides students with an alcohol and substance-free night of entertainment as an alternative to partying and impaired driving. Over 800 students (92%) attend the Methacton Post Prom, which is free to all juniors and seniors even if they do not attend prom. Our students with special needs have always been invited and have attended Post Prom, but last year we began hosting a special walk through an hour before the Post Prom for those students who might be overwhelmed by the chaos of Post Prom called our “sensory friendly hour.” The Methacton Post Prom is supported by our students, parents, schools and a community of businesses, churches, girl scout and boy scout troops, and restaurants. We have over 400 parent volunteers who make this event a success. This year’s them is music and we are also celebrating our 20th year of keeping kids safe on prom night. Our tag line is “Don’t Stop Believin’…20 Years of Post Prom”. During Post Prom the students are provided with activities from volleyball tournaments and rock wall climbing, to glow in the dark laser tag and bowling. Methacton Post Prom also provides education about the risks of drug and alcohol use to our students and parents. During the week of prom, the Methacton Post Prom places a crashed vehicle in the student parking lot with signage to remind students of the risks of impaired driving, and we put notes in with prom flowers and in the pockets of rented tuxes to remind our students to make good decisions.
