Memorial Day Around Town

I don’t know about you, but I am totally overwhelmed that Memorial Day/Memorial Weekend is upon us. It seems like only yesterday that I was choosing my New Year’s resolutions. (One was losing weight – so far the only thing I’ve lost is the battle.)

But Memorial Day, like Veteran’s Day, is especially poignant to me. Not only did my son Danny serve in the Air Force but this year Memorial Day – always the last Monday in May – is on May 30. Not only is May 30 the true Memorial Day but it is also my birthday.

There are several “milestone” birthdays in my past. I remember my 18^th when a (small) surprise party was waiting for me. It was one of the times I was truly surprised.

And my 50^th, which I had always thought I’d be celebrating in Tahiti, was spent at Prom Plus. I had started the paper a scant few months earlier and certainly did not have the time – or money – to jet off to Tahiti. Like redoing my kitchen, my trip to Tahiti has been repeatedly postponed.

And speaking of Prom Plus…

It came down to the wire for organizers of this year’s event to decide whether or not Prom Plus could even be held. A severe shortage of volunteers meant that staffing would be an issue. You have to remember that Prom Plus hosts a variety of activities – a mechanical bull, zip line, bungee run, full casino and lots of food to name a few – and many of these demand that a Prom Plus volunteer either oversees the activities or is an active member of them. These include the registration table, which is hopping when prom first lets out and so many of the students come to Prom Plus and need to be signed in. Volunteers also help out in the casino, in the kitchen preparing and presenting the food, monitoring the halls, etc.

The board chose May 23 as the deadline for volunteer sign ups with a board meeting planned for May 24 to make a decision.

Fortunately, due to the hard work of the board members and their major outreach efforts, enough volunteers signed up to ensure that there will be a Prom Plus event this year.

I understand the hesitancy to sign up. I’ve been working the Prom Plus event since 1999 when my oldest was a senior. Pulling an “all-nighter” isn’t easy. But once you get to the Y and are involved with the students and see how much fun they have, you get invigorated. My hope, as a mother whose youngest is 29 – far beyond high school – is that the parents of students who’ll be working the event will decide to become more involved with Prom Plus. After all, it’s about saving lives – one prom at a time.

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As I was writing this, the events at Uvalde, Texas were unfolding at Robb Elementary School. To see the grief on the faces of those whose children were killed is heart-wrenching.

My voice joins in the millions that say something has to change but, like so many others, I don’t know have any answers.