Stellar prom planned

There will be lots of sparkling, dangling decorations “When the Stars Collide” at the Iola High School junior/senior prom this year.
“The custodians are putting up wires for us to hang about 300 stars,” said high school counselor and prom decorations coordinator Jodi Grover. Silver, black, purple and green balloons will fill the IHS gym, transforming it into a summer night under the stars.
The junior class traditionally organizes decorations for the event, Grover said.
“We’ve been working on it since November or December,” she noted. The group ordered numerous kits that must be put together to create the faux courtyard scene they selected.
“It’s a lot of hot glue and junk and following instructions,” Grover said. “We had to order special lighting,” too, Grover added.
Despite the fact they have copious supplies, by Wednesday, Grover said, students, “will be saying we don’t have enough stuff.”
Local vendors have already vowed to help out, Grover said, offering gazebos and archways and fake trees to help make the scene more realistic.
Grover will help while students work from 5 to 10 p.m. each night this week putting up the decorations, she said.
“We just kind of plunk along,” she said.
“It’s really fun for the kids,” Grover noted, and is the one event where students of all interests “come together for one week,” she said.
Howie Day’s mega-hit “Collide” is this year’s theme song, Grover said.
The prom will run one hour longer than usual, until midnight this year, Grover said, to give students more time to dance.
An after-prom party follows until 3 a.m.
The party, at the Recreation Building in Riverside Park, will keep students active with games, movies, food, prizes and more dancing.
Students are given up to 45 minutes to get from the prom to the Rec. Building, said party organizer Terry Lower. At 12:45 a.m., doors are locked, he said.
Both the party and adjacent parking lots will be supervised for the duration, Lower said.
At the shindig, students can expect Nintendo, Wii and X-Box games on a big screen TV, a climbing wall, bull ride, bungi run — where students try to race wearing bungi cords — and structured pillow fight, Lower said.
Staged photos using “old-time” backdrops borrowed from the Plainsmen will be available. Local disc jockey Cornell Pulley will spin tunes. And “every few minutes,” Lower said, the names of Iola juniors and seniors will be selected in drawings for monetary prizes ranging between $25 and $100.
The party is funded through a previous enchilada sale and pizza party. Prizes are all donated.
“The town has been really fantastic” about supporting the event, Lower said
The after prom party is organized and supervised by parents of high school juniors, Lower said. There are 89 students in this year’s junior class, and most parents help out in some way, he added.
Students who want to leave before the 3 a.m. dismissal time must call their parents, Lower said. Upon approval, they may go, he said.
Most, however, choose to stick it out, Lower said, although they start to get pretty tired around 2 a.m.
There is no cost to attend the after prom party, but students must sign up at the high school office, Lower said.