Gourmet dinner served on the Goodtime III cruise ship with the Cleveland skyline and the waves of Lake Erie as the backdrop the Class of 2021 finally has a prom to now look forward to, after a senior year filled with COVID protocols, quarantines, cancellations and uncertainty. 

Seniors are excited to be exclusively invited to this May 15 prom and have the option to bring dates. Earlier plans made (prior to the easing of COVID guidelines) involved a formal dinner at the high school and such a limit on numbers that seniors would not be able to bring dates.

Now with this COVID-friendly prom — held in a brand new location — officially planned, seniors are running out to shop for outfits and grabbing dates, happy about getting back to a more “normal” end of the year.

Boarding begins at at 6:30. The ship will sail at 7 p.m. and dock, ending the event, at 9:30 p.m.

COVID-19 regulations have made planning prom a difficult task for the junior class advisers and officers. 

Officer Caitlin Wagener said, “The most challenging part of the planning process was the uncertainty and the changes that we had to deal with to go along with COVID guidelines, and it was extremely difficult to finalize anything.” 

Plans changed multiple times throughout the year, said Molly Klodor, junior class co-adviser. “The number one challenge was trying to merge what we could do with the state guidelines from the health department…merging what we could do with what the students wanted. That was probably, for me, the foremost, number one most challenging thing.” 

Plans now include making this a formal event in which students dress up, can take pictures with friends and dates (at no charge) in the photo booth and on the dock, enjoy a dinner, DJ, and the traditional senior slideshow.

“This is as close to a real prom experience as we can give them,” said Klodor’s junior class co-adviser, Christine Srp.

Senior Erika Richards is currently collecting photos of her classmates throughout their school years for the slideshow. Seniors looking to get photos into the show can email them to Richards or share them via Google drive

There will be a couple of options for dinner, “With junior class officers, that’s part of the job,” Klodor said, “so they do all the planning work with the design, the dinner, the meal plan, all of that stuff.” 

With all the prom advisers have to go through with budgeting and planning for the event, the little details are left to the officers. 

“One of the things [we advisers] don’t want to take care of is design,” Klodor explained. “…We can’t thank the junior officers enough for taking on that responsibility, ‘cause they set the tone. We make the payments and set the dates, but they design the prom.”

When prom was held at its traditional location, The Bertram Inn, in Aurora, tickets were $60 each.  This year tickets will be half that price, $40, but they will be on sale from April 26 -30 during lunch. 

Those planning to bring a date from another school need to fill out a guest form found in the main office. Guests must be under the age of 20.