Are any of you involved with planning a Project Graduation event? (All-nigh lock-in party for high school grads night of graduation with the goal to provide an alcohol-free/drug-free option for celebrating.) I know most of the active members of the Message Boards tend to be from the elementary level, but we have a few sprinkled in from the higher grades.

I've been a long-time parent group member and experienced a lot: ups & downs, embezzlement, restructuring from the ground up, parent apathy, almost total lack of interest at the middle school level, PTA/PTO, bad economic times....

But this is the hardest thing I've ever worked on. By the time parents get to this point they are so burned out it's insane (or never interested to begin with). I have mixed feelings about these events. I think the original premise was great - to provide a SAFE and fun option for this final celebration. However, many of the groups are now raising $30-$40K for the one night. Some don't feel it's viable unless every student goes home with a $50 gift card. Entertainment is $10,000. Most of the food is donated.

We've seriously scaled ours down (no gift cards), but we still need $14,000 (net) in the next few months. And I don't even want to imagine the 40-50 volunteers we need to recruit that night.

Is anyone else working on one of these?

JHB, I have a sophomore but am on our PG mailing list. The task is even more daunting this year because of the poor economy. More parents are back to work and cannot commit to working that night. We ask all our families in the high school to "sponsor a senior" and of course very few do. We also don't do anything beyond providing the space, entertainment, transportation and the food. It's a stretch even then.

As far as being burned out - I started lurking on these message boards about 9 years ago and learned from you and many others. I've been a PTO board member all these years and will be for at least two more. I couldn't do it without the strong and funny group of women I work with. I still get so much joy from being a part of my children's parent groups albeit less now that both are out of elementary. Moving on to other community groups so that I feel that I am contributing to my town.

Good luck!

I don't know if this will help you at all and I have never participated in a Graduation Project, but the county I live in holds a GradFest every year for the two high schools here. Cocke County High and Cosby High hold their festival together and it seems to be a big success with all of the graduates. You may want to contact them to see if there is anything they can assist you with.

Cosby High School: 423.487.5602 Principal - Paul Webb
Cocke County High School: 423.623.8718 Principal - Gary Williams
Director of Schools - Manney Moore, you can contact him at moorem@mail.cocke.k12.tn.us


I found this on the local newspaper website...For more information, contact Donna Lamb at (423) 623-6185 or e-mail lamb1984@planetc.com.

Good Luck.

Yes--I've got another year to go before I'm fully immersed in it, but I volunteered at one last year to see what was involved and am volunteering at it again this year--in the room where the kids come in and pick out their ~$50 gift. (So yeah, I'm basically one of the suckers who is "in training" to be on the committee for next year's bash.) They are huge around here, and fundraise constantly. But almost every senior goes. The majority of the funding comes from donations and fundraising, but the kids also have to buy a ticket. It is a ton of work, but any school around here that does it can claim that they have not had a single kid die or get seriously hurt on graduation night since they started holding these parties.

I'm actually under the impression that they don't really have that hard a time getting volunteers for that night. Parents of juniors/sophomores/freshmen volunteer at the beginning of the night, when the graduation is going on. Then, once graduation is over and the kids start to arrive, the senior parents take over. The underclass parents get kicked out at that point (seriously--and they are very strict about it). I think the senior parents enjoy the chance to be together and celebrate with the others.

Thanks for the comments and ideas!

I've volunteered at the last two because the graduation ceremony was evening and the senior parents couldn't miss their own child's graduation to do set up. so parents from lower classes helped out. This year, our ceremony is mid-afternoon, so the timing will work better for us.

From what I've seen and heard, the biggest problem is that there's a high percentage of no shows from the volunteer list that night. In some ways, I wish we were having ours at a commercial location, but it would be a lot more expensive.

I think it will be fun, but it's definitely the hardest school-related project I've ever worked on.

I was chatting with my cousin who lives in a Chicago suburb. They have a real estate company that sponsors lawn signs for graduating seniors each spring. The signs are in the school colors and say something like "Proud Family of a XXX High School Senior". There is a white space where the first name and last initial of the student is written. Volunteers fan out across town on one night to place the signs.

Not really related to Project Grad but it seems to be a real morale booster even if you live in a larger town. She lives in a city/town of over 100,000. We noticed the signs EVERYWHERE when we visited last spring.

No cost for these as the sponsor pays for the supplies. As always, the challenge is in getting volunteers to follow through. Good luck and keep us posted.