As 2022 kicks off, the staff and students of Vashon Island High School (VHS) have begun to plan and fundraise for this year’s prom to be held on May 21, on Lake Union.

Prom, a century-old tradition to culminate the year where students get dressed up for a night of dancing and celebration. Originally, prom (short for promenade) began in colleges and universities in the Northeast to celebrate graduates and promote social etiquette.

On Vashon, the sentiment is similar. Prom is typically held off-island and while the event has changed over the years in terms of extravagance, budget, and social expectations, the celebration aspect remains the same.

“It’s a fun opportunity to get together with friends at the end of the year,” Davis Kelly, a Vashon High School (VHS) senior said. “Everybody tends to sort of go off in different directions afterward, so it’s nice to have one more chance to see everybody.”

Ellie Kuyper, a graduate of the VHS class of 1992 and parent of a current high school senior, remembers the energy of her prom night.

“I remember the glitz and glam [the most]. It was so beautiful that it just made everybody feel special,” she said.

School dances are always special occasions, but prom is more than that — it is one of the last events before graduation and an experience that students always look forward to. And in today’s world of social media, prom is a bigger event than ever before.

“There are a lot of expectations about prom. I don’t know if that’s because of social media but it’s blown up, the whole proposal and all of the details,” said VHS Associated Student Body (ASB) advisor Kara Sears. “I think people get really caught up in that — ‘is this Instagram-worthy? How is this gonna look in pictures?’”

The past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed significantly to expectations surrounding prom for students, as there has not been a school-wide event in more than two years.

Kelly, who is on the 2022 prom committee, is aware of students’ heightened excitement and said the committee is taking safety protocol into account.

“We’re doing something in Seattle on the water — there’s a cool venue that we found [that is] big enough for everybody to be COVID safe, and small enough where it still feels like a good size,” Kelly said. “We’re going to continue to try to do enough fundraising to make it a really enjoyable experience for everybody.”

Every year, students on the prom committee must make decisions about what they believe their classmates will want regarding location, food, music, and everything else that goes into making prom successful.

“There’s a delicate balance that we try to maintain … what is reasonable to make people happy in terms of what they want, but then also keeping it in check — it’s just prom, right?” Sears said.

Putting on the best prom for students is only possible with fundraising and input from the community, which is something that Vashon is well versed in.

“It’s a small enough community where it feels like everybody is really involved in a positive way,” Kelly said. “Across the board, not just specifically with prom, there’s a lot of community engagement with the high school, from scholarships to grants, and I think we all feel lucky that there’s that support base from the community on the island … none of it would have been possible without [the community]. We’re all really grateful.”

Community involvement is what makes events such as prom special, and more than ever, support from the community helps to shape and prepare students for beyond high school.

“[Prom is] one of the last things that these high school seniors are going to be involved with,” Kuyper said. “And I think that we need to fund that. Anything that we can [do to] put these kids in the right direction, doing and making smart choices, I think as parents and as the school, is a tradition that we should continue on with.”

With your support, VHS can put on the prom students deserve to help celebrate another class of graduates. Donations for Prom 2022 are now being accepted by cash, check, the QR code above, or by visiting tinyurl.com/ean9frsy. Checks should be made out to the Vashon Island High School, Class of 2022, and sent to 9600 SW 204th Street, Vashon, 98070.

Lucy Wing is a Vashon Island High School senior who is a content editor for the Riptide, the VHS newspaper. Read more of her journalism at riptide.vashonsd.org.