All school year, the Junior Class has been fund-raising for the annual junior/senior Prom which is scheduled for Friday. takes  At a cost of approximately $16,000, this year’s event is themed Garden of Glamour and includes a sit-down dinner, a photo booth and a DJ.

“Organizing Prom was very eventful,” Junior Class Historian Iona Peters said. “I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be, but it was very exciting and rewarding in the end.”

The process for choosing a theme went through many stages of careful consideration.

“Initially, we wanted a Glittering in Gold theme, however, after hearing other student’s suggestions of Enchanted Garden, we considered changing it,” Junior Class Vice-President Thien-nhi Nguyen said. “Based off of student input and looking at the previous Prom, we decided to change it to Garden of Glamour. We didn’t want it to be exactly Enchanted Garden because we felt that may have been too cliche, so we added the Glamour aspect for more of a luxurious and gold-type feel.”

A purchased ticket is required to get into the Prom venue, which leaves students who were unable to purchase a ticket during the week they were sold or those who have lost their ticket unable to attend. Their high cost has also raised questions from junior Lauren Batache.

“I’m excited for Prom, but $75 was a little much for a simple dinner and dance,” Batache said.

The ticket sales revenue goes toward both paying for the rest of Prom and next year’s activities, according to Nguyen.

After all of the fund-raising done throughout the year, including the caramel apples, Texas Roadhouse rolls, and various spirit nights, the Class still has money left to go toward next year’s Project Graduation, Grad Bash and graduation itself.

“It would also be nice if we had remaining money left over to leave West Shore a gift from our class, like the wildcat statue that a previous class gave before we graduate,” Nguyen said. “Remaining money after that will be donated to the current freshman class, who will be juniors after we leave, and they will use those funds for their Prom.”

To fully plan Prom, the officers had to attend weekly Junior Class meetings where they and sponsor Kimberly Walling discussed fund-raising events and Prom-related decisions.

“I learned a lot,” Peters said. “I knew about budgeting and everything else, but I learned about the difficulties and the things that actually go into these decisions.”

Despite the stress associated with handling large amounts of money, being one of the Junior Class officers proved to be an overall rewarding experience for Nguyen.

“I would make sure that we kept track of our funds rather than just relying on the bookkeeper so that we could avoid financial issues, which we did run into this year,” Nguyen said. “Other than that, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve loved working with the other officers and sponsors to make such an exciting and memorable event for everyone.”

By Allison Clark