June 25, 2020

Prom is arguably one of the biggest milestones in a young person’s high school career. It’s certainly something that our young men and women look forward to each year. You can imagine the incredible disappoint that came with the cancelation of the many end of year activities, including prom. However, both our coworkers and young women wanted to make sure that our senior girls still had a night to remember.

“We had talked about wanting to do some type of a prom here or some type of a celebratory thing in the summer,” Amy Schulz, the director of girls campus programs, said. “But I think the cool thing about this was that it really came from the youth in program. … The other girls were sad that Destiny and Jamiyah [the graduating seniors] weren’t having a prom.”

LaDonna, who had a great time at prom last year, especially wanted to make sure her peers had the same great experience she did. She suggested that Mercy Home hold a prom instead.

Once the idea was suggested, all of our girls were immediately very excited about the prospect of a Mercy Home prom. They eagerly discussed the makeup they would put on, the hairdos they would have, and the dresses they would wear.

Fortunately, our generous donors make sure that Mercy Home always has some prom dresses on hand and our coworkers were able to find things to fit almost all our girls. But one dress was still needed, and Monti Clayton, the manager of coordinated supports in AfterCare and former program manager at our girls campus, came to rescue to find a last-minute dress. As Monti is always part of the group of coworkers who helps our girls get everything they need for prom, it was a perfect role for her.

“Even though she’s been with AfterCare, it’s still a thing that’s in her heart,” Amy said.

Of course, there was still more planning to be done, and coworkers Angie Hicks, Ashley Monroe-Turner, Valencia Vaughn, Gewanda Monroe, and Dawn Centracchio worked together to plan the perfect evening. The girls requested a dinner of sub sandwiches, taco salad, and sweets. There was also a place to take prom photos, music and dancing, decorations, and even a red-carpet entrance. Gewanda spent the night as the DJ and even took requests from our girls.

It ended up being a really wonderful night for all our girls.

“They were so excited,” Amy said. “They were like, can we do this every week? … They were just so happy.”

Amy added that the girls were extremely supportive of each other and had a great time dancing together. Even one of our girls who was initially reluctant to attend any prom ended up having a great time.

Aside from a fun evening, Mercy Home’s prom also provided some normalcy to our kids’ lives that may have been missing over the past months.

“[This was part of the] the importance of making memories with them and [making] something happen that they’ll remember,” Amy said. “yes, this was year of 2020 in quarantine and all that. But [they] were able to have a part of this experience that they’ll remember forever. And I think so much of what we do is that, making memories with them and we didn’t want them to lose out on that, nor did their peers.”