Volunteers still needed to chaperone and work booths
Gilroy – It takes months of planning, donations galore, and the ability to function without sleep – but every year the parents and friends of Gilroy seniors manage to put on a safe and sober night of fun for high school graduates.
The theme of Gilroy High School’s Grad Night 2006 is “It’s Your World,” and the corners of the auxiliary gymnasium will be transformed into various countries around the globe. Tickets went on sale this week for $50 and will be available for students to purchase during lunch next week and at the door June 16.
“As with all teenagers they wait until the last minute to buy tickets,” said Grad Night Committee treasurer Mia DeLorenzo. “Obviously we would like to get the entire class to come, but if we get 300 students we feel we are very, very successful.”
Gilroy parents formed Grad Night 18 years ago in response to a drunken driving accident that killed a Vallejo teen on graduation night.
“We’re trying to teach kids you can have a good time without alcohol,” DeLorenzo said. “You put alcohol and kids together and a twist of fate and your community could suffer a horrible tragedy.”
Parent volunteers help coordinate the event, working at various fundraisers throughout the year helping to raise the minimum $40,000 necessary to bring the event to seniors on graduation night.
Nearly half of the budget is for rental fees for toys such as the inflatable cash cubes, bungee basketball, obstacle course, and the climbing wall. The casino room, filled with black jack, craps and poker tables, are popular with the students. A variety of prizes, from televisions to microwaves, are given away throughout the evening.
Students arrive for the evening between 10 and 11pm the night of graduation and are required to stay until the event ends at 5am the next day.
Volunteers work tireless the days before graduation decorating the gym for the seniors.
“We don’t leave until it’s complete,” DeLorenzo said. “All it takes is one kid that you don’t know to come up to you and say ‘thanks’ and it just melts your heart and all those hours melt away.
Volunteers are still needed to chaperone the event and work at the booths. For more information about volunteering contact Wilma Baltar at 781-5300 or DeLorenzo at 842-7548.
Donations should be made out to GHS Grad Night 2006 and sent to GHS Grad Night 2006 PO Box 545, Gilroy, Calif. 95021
