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| Photo Credit: Den Echoes archive. |
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Prom. When the major event in high school is reminisced about, we all think back to the cheesy movies, where the only worries in the world are who's going to win Prom King or Queen, and the dresses. Orange had its 51st annual prom, and this year’s theme was "A Gatsby Affair." The Durham Hilton was filled with gold and black balloons, while the ballroom had a DJ, as well as different multi-color lights, with lighted mini palm trees illuminating the tables.
Students danced the night away with a variety of songs, including "Timber," "Cotton-Eyed Joe," and "All of Me." Students also gathered together for group songs, like the "Cupid Shuffle" and "Wobble." Prom ended at midnight with "Let it Go" from Disney’s hit film Frozen.
Students enjoyed a wide assortment of food provided by the Durham Hilton. Of course, there would be no prom without chaperones, which was the Orange High Staff, who all looked quite dapper.
When asked how she would describe her prom experience from this year, senior Brianna Hales said, “Prom was so much fun! I love seeing all my friend dressed up, they look so dapper.” Also, sophomore Jared Riley said, “It was pretty fun, the DJ did a good job of keeping us students pumped up and dancing. My favorite thing would probably be just hanging out with my friends and having a great night.”
Though prom started at 8:00 pm on Saturday, most students didn’t make their grand arrivals until 8:45 pm or later.
Of course, one of the most important factors is the attire! Each and every girl had a dress a little different from the rest, with popular colors from the night ranging from mint green to orange. Just like the night, the decorations, and the theme itself, each and every dress had class, mixed with pizzazz and flare.
For next year’s theme, junior Megan Joyner hopes “the theme next year is something exotic and exciting.” While Maddie Norwood, also a junior, hopes that next year’s theme “is a masquerade, because I think that would be really neat.”
“I think the prom was a lot of fun. I loved the decorations -- even though they didn't really seem to be Gatsby-themed, they were still amazing and gave prom a much more sophisticated atmosphere than at other dances. The music was pretty good and I loved the food, especially the punch fountain,” said Norwood.
Photo Credit: The UniBallers Family Photos on Flickr. No edits made. Photo License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/.[/caption]The junior-senior prom at OHS is being held at the Durham Hilton Saturday, April 26. Prom tickets will be sold in Christy Frye’s room, room 126, starting Tuesday, April 8. The tickets will be $35.00 for only three days, April 8-10, then they will be $40 thereafter.
If you are bringing a date to prom who is not from our school please see Marcia Compton in the guidance office. She will put in the prom bid for you. The person you are bringing must be under 21 and they will ask you to provide proof of age.
The theme for the prom this year is “Great Gatsby.” The decorations and senior prom invitations will be modeled after the popular Roaring Twenties based book written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A recent movie starring Leonardo Dicaprio made “The Great Gatsby” very popular with its outrageous, larger-than-life portrayal of the 1920’s time period.
The Orange High School Prom King and Queen were announced on Saturday, April 14. The winners were Blake Hall and Grace Huskins. Nominations for king and queen were done weeks prior to the event. The seniors were asked to nominate any girl and boy in the senior class.
The nominees for prom queen were seniors Chenoa Daye, Chasity Hayes, and Grace Huskins, and the nominees for king were seniors Blake Hall and Andrew Toney. The DJ announced the winners- Hall and Huskins. The winners got a sash and a crown stating their new title.
Winner Grace Huskins said that when she was nominated she was surprised because she did not expect to win due to the strong competition. "I heard my name being called and I thought that they were just announcing nominees, and then I turned to Nic [Peckman, her boyfriend] and said, ‘When are they saying the winner?’ and he said that it was me, that I was the winner!” said Huskins. She said she was in pure shock when her name was announced and that she was happy to have won.
Update 4/15: 376 students skipped on Senior Skip Day, which was April 12, 2013. According to Jane Clapp, out of the 376, 282 students were absent all day, 31 for half of the day, and 61 absent for at least one class. She estimates that there were approximately 2 1/2 times as many absent as on a regular school day. A survey was taken of 31 seniors two days before Senior Skip Day, April 12, 2013. Nineteen of those seniors stated that they were not coming to school, eight of those seniors said that they hadn’t decided yet whether or not they would come to school, and four of those seniors said that they were coming to school.
When asked what the “skipping” seniors were going to do on Senior Skip Day, most replied that they were going to get ready for prom, which occurs on the following day. Some other responses included: sleeping, going to the zoo, working on schoolwork, and relaxing at home.
The seniors that have not decided whether or not to skip and the seniors who will not be skipping said that they were worried about attendance problems, had important classes that they couldn’t skip, or were unable to convince parents to allow them to skip.
When asked, Mr. Marsh stated that “[senior skip day] has a negative impact on the student body as a whole because more than seniors skip.” Ms. Lee added that “it is a safety and security concern” for students in bulk to skip on this day. The school must follow the standard attendance policy so any absences will be counted but there are no other punishments for students that do not come.
Ms. Lee suggested that, instead of having a Senior Skip Day, seniors could organize a service activity or have a senior school beautification day, for which they could be excused to do. She said that this idea is something to think about for the following year.