Junior Caden Deardurff’s most memorable moment from prom was being surrounded by his friends and classmates.

“Taking pictures with friends and as a grade beforehand was really fun,” he said.

The 2026 prom theme, “A Night in Rio,” was originally proposed for a different event, but the theme was eventually picked for the much more anticipated one. According to Student Activities Committee sophomore representative Fiona Lambert, the theme is the first thing on the agenda. Although Lambert wasn’t a main contributor while planning this year’s prom, she was able to watch and learn about the process. Prom is one of the most exciting school events for many juniors and seniors, and it is highly anticipated: thus, all of the planning that goes into it takes a lot of energy.

“We start out kind of early, just to make sure that we have it done on time,” Lambert said. “We all sit around and come up with ideas and we start off with a theme first, because everything falls in place after that.”

Prom is traditionally a highly anticipated event. High school proms were not the beginning of the tradition, though: prom was first mentioned when college dances started to be referred to by the nickname. It wasn’t until a few years later that the first high school proms were hosted. Eventually, this would evolve into the event that is a staple in American high school experiences.

Deardurff explained the process in more depth.

“We started planning for prom right away after the winter formal, and the very first thing that we did was decide on a theme,” he said.

Planning an anticipated event can be stressful, but consistent work over a period of time can help to take off the pressure.

“We worked on planning every meet ing between winter formal and the day of prom, but it was spread out enough that it didn’t feel stressful at all,” Deardurff said.

He also described the venue and lay out for the event. “The location for prom was super nice,” he said. “Tables for dinner were on a different level than the dance floor [and] dessert table, which made it so that people could spread out more depending on what they wanted to do.”

He also noted that the decorations for prom were very different from the decorations for other school dances: palm trees, balloon arches and tropical flowers adorned the space, setting a mood to match the theme. “All of the decorations are done by the parent association to make the night more special … Prom had a lot more decorations than other dances,” Deardurff said.

Prom was held May 9. Activities in cluded board games, dinner, dancing and a photo booth.