On Saturday, juniors and seniors at Hayes High School will hop in a time machine and head back to the 1970s to participate in prom, which is themed around disco this year.
The event will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. on April 21 at Villa Milano in Columbus.
Principal Dr. Ric Stranges said the event was organized by the Hayes High School Student Council and is disco themed, somewhat to Stranges’ chagrin.
“A lot of the sounds will be around that awful era of music,” Stranges said with a laugh. “Student Council does a great job of providing an atmosphere. It’s a school event that shows that we can have fun together.”
The event is exclusively for juniors and seniors at the school, and Stranges said he hopes students enjoy the experience.
“It’s more than just a school dance, it’s a memorable benchmark of their lives that they’ll never forget,” he said. “Our job is to provide a safe, memorable, and fun evening for them.”
Stranges said the event is once again being held at the Villa Milano Banquet & Conference Center.
“I’m always so proud of our students and the way they represent themselves and dress appropriately,” Stranges said. “Villa Milano does a great job hosting it for us, that’s why we’ve gone for the last seven or eight years. It’s a beautiful evening for our students.”
Stranges added he hopes seniors enjoy the opportunity to bond as a class before graduation.
“You want to make sure it’s an evening that they can come together, especially as a senior class,” he said. “It’s one of the last times they’ll have an event like this that’s exclusive and memorable to them. (They will have a) final song that they hear together, which is always a nice way to end an evening.”
Stranges said he has encouraged students to have fun, but also be respectful to each other.
“Even though you may not marry that person that you take, you want to make it an evening they cherish and remember, too,” Stranges said. “(It’s important to) treat each other with respect. Make it an evening they will remember as fun and something they cherish.”
Stranges said he gets nostalgic about prom every year.
“For me, I still remember my prom,” he said. “All of us remember that time, to remember prom as a time in our lives that we ended out high school careers with our friends in a memorable way.”
Glenn Battishill can be reached at 740-413-0903 or on Twitter @BattishillDG.
