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Grad
Night:
A whole lot of work,
but a valuable send-off |
The annual NHS graduation party doesn't come without lots of preparation,
and money |
By Christie Scotty, Newberg Graphic
Reporter
Email Christie at cscotty@eaglenewspapers.com
|
Those who know Teri Council sometimes call her crazy for
working the kinds of hours she does — 10 to 15 hours a week right now, maybe double
that a few months from now.
Those hours are not spent at her job, though she does work full-time as a
customer service supervisor. Council logs the extra hours as a volunteer organizing
Newberg High School’s Grad Night, an all-night party hosted for NHS grads after they
receive their diplomas.
Council is just the most visible among a cadre of 20-plus parents who spend
free hours staging the drug- and alcohol-free party for their teenagers and their friends.
“I’m trying not to do quite as much this year,” Council said,
laughing. When she organized the drive three years ago she was putting in 30- and 40-hour
work weeks. All this for one night?
Volunteers say it is worth it. They know what goes on after graduation night
if there’s no central event to gravitate toward — they have heard the fatality
rates from drunk driving on graduation night, and they know students want a final event to
cap their high school career with friends.
That’s why when NHS averages 300 to 350 graduates, organizers can count
on 270 or 280 grads showing up at Grad Night.
Sandy Norman is helping with Grad Night for the third time, for her third
graduating senior.
“It’s just something I feel like I’m doing for my kids ...
they just strive for (graduation) and it’s kind of a neat thing to throw them a party
for it,” Norman said.
In the meantime, Grad Night volunteers seem to be everywhere. That means if
you bought a “butter braid” pastry to serve at a holiday party, if you treated
your family to a pizza dinner on an Izzy’s Card, if you gave a “Finals Survivor
Bag” to a high school student struggling through final exams, or if you’re
awaiting a Feb. 25 raffle drawing to see if you’re headed to a Portland Trail Blazers
game — you have benefited the Grad Night effort.
Organizers are ahead of the game this year with $13,000 already raised for an
event estimated to cost in excess of $30,000; about $4,000 of that came in excess funds
from last year’s event.
But despite the successful fund-raising — the recent survivor bags
during finals raised $1,200 alone — organizers say they are still lacking volunteers.
“We really need that community support ... we need other people involved
other than senior parents because senior parents are going to be busy the day of
graduation and that’s when it all has to come together,” Council said. She began
helping out when her child was a junior. She said it takes up to 100 people to run the
event.
Finding those people, and the services and donations they can offer the
event, is what will keep Council sending out e-mails in the evening hours after work.
After all, there’s still a pancake feed and a casino night to plan, and
less than six months left before graduation. |
|
From Dec. 18,
2002, Newberg Graphic
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