Last Thursday, seniors and juniors, alongside their dates, celebrated prom at the beautiful venue, Tupper Manor, in Beverly.
The class of 2023 officers and advisers had been planning the evening since last summer—touring and choosing a venue, picking the menu items, hiring a photographer, and selecting a photo booth, amongst other things.
All this is to celebrate a week that seniors have been working towards their entire high school career. With prom and senior week activities in mind, the class officers have been fundraising through various creative events since their freshmen year in 2019.
The class of 2023 got a “free” entrance to the dance. In reality, however, their contributions through fundraisers and class dues over the years are their official payment to both prom and the senior week activities that follow.
For juniors, the ticket price was $90, but for a beautiful venue, good food, engaging music, and an overall great time, it was worth it.
Traditionally, the prom is for juniors and seniors, but students could bring a date from any grade or school if they had signed a special form.
Though the prom officially started at 6:15, the festivities and getting ready started long before. Juniors, still in school, were allowed to leave with permission at 11:40 to start preparing.
Annual picture taking at Tuck’s Point started at 3 p.m. and through about 5 p.m. Before, many students gathered at their own houses to take even more pictures. Needless to say, many people lost phone storage that day.
Though it was certainly not as sunny and hot as this past weekend, the weather was still good. There were still plenty of light blue skies to fill the backdrops of pictures. That said, the occasional wind had many gripping their hair, hoping their curls would stay in place.
The party officially started when the buses departed the elementary school at 6 p.m. Before entering their assigned buses, students were subject to random breathalyzer tests and bag and pocket checks.
When they were all clear, it was a short 20-minute bus ride to the venue. When the buses arrived at the Tupper Manor entrance, the students were greeted by a charming fountain. Before entering the building, a quick picture was taken of the whole group. Despite the difficulty in getting all 220 people to smile simultaneously, it is a great virtual souvenir to have.
Then, the party started. Walking into the building, students were given a fruit punch mocktail and went to their assigned tables. Each seat had a complementary seashell with the assigned student’s name on it.
After about half an hour filled with conversations, sight-seeing around the venue, and eating delicious passed hors d’oeuvres before settling into a buffet dinner with options of BBQ steak, steamed vegetables, bread with eye-catching butter balls, salty waffle-cut fries, and pasta with red sauce.
Soon after dinner, students hit the dance floor with an excited and fun DJ, “DJ Case,” who played a mixture of interesting remixes as well as loved-by-all sing-along hits.
For a quick break from dancing, there was an abundance of sweet treats for dessert. Some other activities at the venue besides spending time on the dance floor were a photo booth and a pool room.
Not surprisingly, given the excitement around the NBA playoffs, many students created their own fun by watching the Celtics dominate Game 5.
At around 9:45 p.m., it was time to leave the venue. As students walked to the buses, there was an overwhelming sentiment by asking, “It’s already over?!”
In the end, students had fun, and everyone is grateful that after numerous years of COVID restrictions on activities, MERHS was able to have a full and successful prom this year.
Phileine de Widt is a junior at MERHS and co-editor of the school’s newspaper, The Independent.
