(KNSI) – Some area high school students will get to go to prom Saturday, but it will look a bit different in light of COVID-19. At Apollo High School, around 140 juniors and seniors will head to the school’s gym for Grand March at 7:30 p.m. Then, the “Enchanted Forest” prom dance will take place in the library starting at 8:30.
Members of the Apollo Student Union spent Thursday evening and most of the day Friday setting up decorations. Apollo senior class president Calvin Walters says prom is usually held at the River’s Edge Convention Center.
Apollo students set up a photo backdrop area just outside of the library, where Apollo’s 2021 prom will be held on May 15. (Dene Dryden)
“This is so much more work than we usually have to do,” Walters said. “[If] we were at the convention center, we just have to put up two, three things, and we’re all good, but we got to decorate this whole space. And, first of all, we had to clear it out, so that’s a lot of books here to move, shelves, desks.”
While faux vines and florals line the walls and support beams, green tape on the floor marks out where pods of 10 students or fewer can dance.
“Originally we were only supposed to have six people per pod,” Walters said. “We got to bump it up to 10 people for max with everything that’s been happening recently, so it’s very fortunate.”
Pods of up to 10 students will dance in the taped boxes during Apollo’s prom on May 15, 2021. (Dene Dryden)
Karina Sebastian, science teacher and Apollo Student Union advisor, says the students who have been planning the big event have been resilient as COVID-19 precautions and restrictions change.
“They knew they wanted a dance in some form,” Sebastian said, alluding to conversations earlier this year about whether or not to hold an actual prom dance. “It was just ‘How are we going to make it happen?’ I definitely think we got lucky that the numbers and everything and the vaccine all turned out the way it did that we were able to make this much more flexible and open than it could have been.”
Though some COVID-19 restrictions have relaxed in wake of a faster-than-expected vaccine distribution in the state, there are still some precautions. As part of the Safe Learning Plan, face masks are still required in schools. Students will dance in pods of up to 10, getting within six feet of others in their pod but staying socially distanced from everyone else. The dance is also restricted to Apollo students; guests from other high schools were not allowed. That brought the number of attendees down — Sebastian said, in non-pandemic times, around 300 Apollo and non-Apollo students attend prom.
Large decorations are ready to be set up in Apollo High School’s gym for the students’ grand march before prom. The theme for the dance this year is “Enchanted Forest.” (Dene Dryden)
The Grand March that precedes the dance is also scaled down in attendance but scaled up in space. Instead of holding the event in Apollo’s auditorium, it will be in the gym — a much larger space to decorate. Sebastian says each student gets two spectators at the grand march.
“I’ve run prom before for ASU, but I’ve never actually got to dance or have a date or have friends to go with and dress up,” Walters said. “I think, especially as a senior, this means a lot to have a night where all of us can come together, have a little fun, get away, kind of, from that school experience.”
Tech High School will also hold its prom on Saturday. Sartell High School students will have their dance next Saturday, May 22nd.
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