CARIBOU, Maine — The Prom Committee at the Caribou High School asked the community for support and help in keeping their prom fabulously spectacular — and keeping it in Caribou.
Hands down, they got what they asked for. All set for Sunday, May 26, the students’ prom now includes valet parking, a sit-down dinner, an informal parade and a Wellness Center decorated to the nines; it even has a red carpet setting (even though the carpet is actually purple) where couples will be announced as they arrive to the prom. And all of it, down to the tablecloths and the DJ, is local.
If it sounds like this group of seniors went all-out in creating a fantastic prom, that’s because they did.
“It was important for other classes to see this and realize ‘oh, that looks really nice — we can do this too’ and hopefully … it will become more of a tradition,” said Kayla Cormier, one of five prom committee co-chairs. The four other co-chairs are Meredith Sleeper, Ginger Kieffer, Mackenzie Belyea and Haley Hunter
When the group first began planning the highly anticipated event, they were challenged by their class advisor Jennifer Plourde to keep prom in Caribou, as opposed to the last couple of years that Caribou’s prom was held at the Crow’s Nest in Presque Isle.
“We wanted to do it in Caribou because the community supports us so much — and we should support them,” said Kieffer. The group’s goal in organizing the quintessential senior dance was to make sure they were using local companies for the festivities, and making their purchases at multiple businesses.
While plenty of community members have chipped in to decorate the gym, valet park the cars and serve dinner, the seniors are also inviting the community to take part in their arrival to prom.
In an informal parade that starts at Skyway Plaza, students will arrive car by car — or in some cases, in potato trucks or tractors — to the Wellness Center’s main entrance. As adult volunteers park the cars, couples and groups will be announced by none-other than the high school’s Kenneth Atcheson before they walk down the purple carpet dressed in their most glamorous attire.
Rec center employees have arranged for bleachers to be set up alongside the purple carpet for spectators to take pictures and wish the teens well.
“Caribou is so small and we’ve been so fortunate to have so many people raise us, in a way,” Kieffer said. “This is their chance to see us all grown up … if they can’t go to graduation.”
In fact, committee members have heard that their teachers from middle school and elementary school might be attending.
With all the attention to detail, decorations and community reception toward making prom an even bigger deal than it’s been in the recent past, committee members are confident that the extra excitement has added this year’s large turnout for prom.
Arriving at all those exciting details that make prom special did take a bit of brainstorming — in fact, their first idea about the extra-local prom was to hold it outside.
“… But then we realized that we live in northern Maine,” said Sleeper, causing her fellow co-chairs to laugh. “Then we thought of the rec center and realized what a nice, new building it was and that we’re so lucky to have that new building in our community — we might as well use it for as many things as possible,” she explained.
“… and the community built it for things like this,” Kieffer added.
While the committee did have extra encouragement to keep it local, having a very Caribou prom was something the group had been talking about for a while.
Narrowing down the specifics, the committee arranged for students to vote on the venue — and the class chose the Wellness Center as their ideal prom location.
“They were able to choose between the rec and the CHS gym,” Sleeper said, adding that the vote indicated that the Class of 2013 is pretty unanimous about hearing one particular song during prom.
“‘Gangnam Style,’” she said, “so I’m assuming it will be a rock-out session to ‘Gangnam Style.’”
Between the dance floor and the dining area, the major challenge for the group was making sure that the space doesn’t look like an area to play dodge ball.
“We’re hoping to really transform the gym, so we spent a little money on gossamer and lighting to help it look more like a special event,” Sleeper said.
Dispelling trepidation that the gym would be too big of an area for the class to fill, 160 prom tickets have been sold and tickets are still being purchased.
“We’re glad we did it like this,” Kieffer said.
Of course, without the helpful support of area businesses, prom couldn’t have been done in this fabulous sort of way.
“Napolis is catering, Jane Small and Fallon are doing the photos, Phil’s Florist has been really great working with flowers, and they’re going to lend us trees to decorate with,” Sleeper described, mentioning that S.W. Collins has been very supportive, many of their decorations were purchased from the Expect More Dollar Store, the invitations were created by County Quick Print and even the evenings music will be provided by DJ Express of Caribou.
The group also mentioned how supportive their adviser Plourde has been, along with Sherrill Campbell, Kathy Mazzuchelli, their chaperones and even the school principal, Mark Jones.
“Mr. Jones is excited — he told us his food choice even before we invited him!” Cormier said.
With so many changes to this year’s prom and the majority of them focused on staying local and involving the community — the committee expressed their appreciation to everyone who chipped in to make one very-memorable prom.
“Everyone’s been more than willing to help out to make this happen,” said Belyea.
Anyone interested in watching the purple-carpet arrival on Prom Night is welcome to show up at the rec center and take a seat in the bleachers; due to the limited space in the parking areas due to the parade and student vehicles being valet parked in the overflow lot, community members who wish to participate in the purple-carpet experience are encouraged to park along Laurette Street or in the Caribou Learning Center parking lot.
“I think it’s important to note that we’re trying to make this a tradition because I know year after year, the community’s donated to the graduating classes but they don’t see what it’s going for,” Kieffer said. “This is a way for them to see that.”
