As you can tell from this blog I spend a lot of time doing community service activities. I have been very involved with Rotary in particular. If you recall, I was a Rotary Exchange student in high school. That experience changed the course of my life and so Rotary is very special to me. Volunteering has been a great way for me to get out, meet people and make new friends, which is good for business. But it has also been very gratifying to contribute to making our little community and the world a better place.
When I was in high school, I knew a kid that as killed in a drunk driving accident. After graduation a bunch of kids had driven from Pennsylvania to New Jersey (where drinking was legal at 18) to celebrate. On the way back, the car he was in swerved as he was sticking his head out the window to get sick. His head hit a telephone pole...and that was it for him He died instantly. I always remembered this tragic incident and how devastating it was to his family and the community. As a parent, I was strict about enforcing a curfew (11 PM) during my kids high school years. I wanted to know where there were and what they were doing at all times because I wanted to keep them safe.
I did not become a Rotarian until 1999, when I was introduced to the Rotary Club that I now belong to -- The Harbor Heights Peace River Rotary. That was the year this Rotary club decided to sponsor a party for kids graduating from Charlotte High School as their major community service project. Paula was in the class of 2000 , so I decided, as the parent of a graduating senior, that I had an obligation to help. Besides, I had not done this kind of thing while we were living in Japan.
I went to the organizing meeting in the fall of 1999, where I met Dr Dennis Munholand and other Rotarians. These club members had taken it upon themselves to organize the event. At the initial meeting they explained that there were two nights in the year that see the most teenage fatalities from traffic accidents -- prom night and graduation night. These are the nights when teenagers are prone to drink and drive. Project Graduation, which started in Virginia, was to provide teens with a drug and alcohol free environment in which to celebrate. The object of Project Graduation is to keep kids safe.
The "party" is not a lock-in -- kids can leave whenever they would like. What we try to do is entice them to come and stay for the night. Each year we hold the event in the high school gym, which is decorated so elaborately that it is transformed into a place you would hardly recognize. Members of the graduating class can attend for free. They must arrive before the doors close at midnight. No girlfriends or other "outsiders" from other schools are allowed to attend. The celebration is strictly for the graduating class.
If they want to go home, they can, but the rule is that they can not return. Every hour we give away prizes randomly. These include such things as TV's, computers, i-pods, dvd players, etc. The best prizes are given away at the end of the night and you have to be there to collect. (In other words, we try and bribe the kids to stay to the end.)
During project graduation there are all kinds of things to do; we have a casino, where you can win tickets to obtain door prizes; we have huge inflatable games such as a bungee run, obstacle course, king of the mountain and the like. We have body painting, a photo area, caricature artists, massage tables, fortune tellers, video game and Foosball area, a cafe where you can have all you want to eat and drink for free, etc. At 2 AM we shut down the activities for an hour while a nationally re known hypnotist entertains the class.
It costs about $20,000 each year to put this party on for the graduating class, which typically has numbered about 400 students. This will be our 9th year and the graduating class is nearly 500 kids! Usually we have more than 90% of the graduating class in attendance. It is a challenge to keep that many kids engaged and entertained for 6 hours. So far, however, it has worked and at Charlotte High it has become a tradition. No one plans a graduation party that competes with Project Graduation.
We get a lot of support from the local hospitals, area businesses, and individuals each year. I have been involved in helping run Project Graduation for the past 8 years and I am proud to report that during this time we have not had a serious car accident involving a teenager on graduation night. Ironically my friend Dr. Dennis Munholand, who was the original organizer, was himself killed in a freak car accident this year. On behalf of our club, I have helped create an endowment in Dennis's memory and have stepped in to help the parent Co-chair run this year's event.
Project Graduation at Charlotte High will be held on May 19 2008. We have already held two organizational meetings. In addition I am helping the Arcadia Rotary organize a Project Graduation for DeSoto High.
I am hoping I can hold it together to fulfill these obligations in the coming year.
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