With less than three weeks until prom, many teachers and students are working hard to pull everything together to make the night perfect. Prom is being held at the Iowa Memorial Union (IMU) from 8-11 pm on Saturday, May 4.

“Prom is always a stressful–well, not stressful, but–it’s a very important thing,” said Judith Dickson, a social studies teacher at City High who is in charge of prom this year.

The theme is “Galaxy Nights: May the Fourth Be With You.” It was decided upon by a vote in student senate and influenced by the fact that prom is on May 4 and the upcoming release of the ninth “Star Wars” movie.

“Prom is always on the first Saturday of May and this year, it falls on May the fourth. So naturally, having a ‘Star Wars’ theme just seemed obvious,” said Dickson.

This year, student senate is doing all of the planning, organization and preparation of the dance.
“It’s always been the junior class, which was really just grown-ups doing it, but now student senate is in it,” said Dickson.

One of the biggest prom preparations is finding and organizing the decorations. Lightsaber bouquets, lifesize “Star Wars” character cutouts and “Star Wars” figurines are just a few of this years decorations specially tailored to the theme.

“Lots of cardboard life lifesize cutouts of ‘Star Wars’ characters,” said Dickson. “We have ‘Star Wars’ theme balloons. We just have all ‘Star Wars’ all the time.”

Some of the prom preparations include, finding chaperones, planning the dessert menu and arranging the venue. There will also be a police officer at the door.

“I think when it all comes together it’s going to be a really cool venue,” said Naomi Meurice, the senior class vice president. “Mrs. Dickson is really good at designing all of these things and I think it’s going to come together really nicely.”

Students have designed tickets, which went on sale on Wednesday, April 17 for $20, posters, and digital designs for the televisions around school.

“[Money from ticket sales] goes back into student senate, and so that money is used for next year’s prom,” said Meurice.

Another exciting thing about this year’s prom is that it will be held in the main ballroom at the IMU. This means that the space will be much larger than in was last year at Hotel Vetro. Because of this, more decorations will be needed to fill the space, but Dickson said the room will feel much grander with more space.

“It’s probably triple the size of Hotel Vetro where we had it last year,” said Dickson. “Because it’s so big, we have to do some extra things to fill the space. So lots of fun fancy desserts, lots of balloons.”

The party after prom, which is planned by the junior class parents, will be held at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, just down the street from the IMU, starting at 11:30 pm.

“We had a request from the junior parents, if we could shorten prom so that they could do [the] party after, so they didn’t have to wait till one [in the morning] or something,” said Melanie Gibbens, one of Student Senate’s advisors.

Gibbens is excited for prom because it is one final party for the seniors and has a lot of student participation.

“I think the best part of prom is from 8 to 11 when the students are there and you just get a special senior send off,” said Gibbens. “Really, this is the last big party for the seniors and I love that they usually stay the whole time. Everybody really wants to enjoy themselves.”

As prom gets nearer and nearer, all the pieces of the puzzle are being wrapped together to make it a super special night.

“It’s kind of like planning a wedding,” said Dickson. “Because you have to have a venue, a DJ, decorations, tickets, security, food, drink, bathroom, all things, and it has to look cute.”