How teens and adults are improvising prom

I would have never in a million years guessed I was going to wear matching sequin masks with my prom date, but here we are. As prom for most is just one to two weeks away, the pillaging of dresses and suits from David’s Bridal and Suit City specifically have skyrocketed. The weirdest part of this year’s prom is not the outfit shopping or bedazzled N95’s, however, but how prom is being handled this year; only one of the proms I’ve been invited to is being held by an actual school.

Instead of the school systems hosting these events, parents and other authority figures are banding together to give their children something to look forward to in this dreary state we call reality. My best friend’s mom, Peverly Stephens, is one of these parents working to make the prom happen. “About ten parents came together,” she said when asked how many people were involved, “there were multiple parents who bought items for the prom.” Along with the parents donating, there was success on Facebook to garner more funds for the event.

Of course, everyone’s main concern is the safety of it all, with the world in a deadly pandemic and all. Well, this committee of parents also thought about that too, and decided to house the prom in the most sanitary of places: a barn. Now it might sound crazy, but from my knowledge it isn’t a barn that houses animals. The reasoning for this somewhat bizarre location is the air flow the barn can have; with all the doors and windows open, there is no closed space, and therefore less of a threat for spreading Ms. Rona. They are renting the barn in Sutherland from a kind man, and with the cap-off for attendees being 200, the priority of the prom is clearly safety over everything else.

The prom is Saturday, May 9th, and I will be attending. If you happen to know anyone from Dan River, I hope to see you there too. You may just get an awkward dance out of me.