Warm cheers and smiling faces greeted guests who to anxiously stepped out of a limousine onto a red carpet fully equipped with “paparazzi,” security guards, and an exclusively roped off entrance to a prom honoring the special needs community of Ventura.
This year’s prom, themed A Night to Remember, took place at Mission Ventura (previously Century 16 Movie Theater) on Saturday night. This is the second year that Mission Church of Ventura has put on the event, and the outcome was tremendous.
Prior to the start of the dance, hundreds of volunteers were bustling around the old movie theater preparing guest’s hair, makeup, outfits, and more.
“It’s like the highlight of the year,” said Katie Tapia, a member of Mission Church and volunteer at the dance. “Everything you see has been donated by church members. We had certain months [to donate items] like in February for collecting prom dresses, shoes, tuxes, everything.”
The event is completely free for its participants due to the church’s ability to rally the community together with funds. The approximate cost for the evening was $100 per guest. There were over 100 guests this year, doubling last year’s total.
Catering services were provided by Dickey’s Barbecue Pit and makeup was provided by Alejandro Salon.
Because the participants of the event all have special needs, each individual was paired with a date for the night called a “host,” although their caregivers were also welcome to attend.
Attendants between ages 12 and 25 were welcomed with many different activities including formal pictures, dancing, photo booths, and a “quiet room” for anyone who wanted to escape the chaos and watch a movie.
Foothill senior Emily Coe was assigned the role of a “host” for the evening. She felt the experience was well worth the volunteer hours.
“I chose to do it because I love working with special needs kids. I volunteer at a special needs school. Seeing the smile on their faces, the way they see the world, they see the world differently than we do, the things we take for granted. I love being able to make a special night for them,” Coe said.
Freshman Naivi Banderas played the role of “paparazzi,” cheering for guests for the first hour or so as they arrived. Banderas chose to volunteer because of her church’s youth program at Our Lady of the Assumption.
“In order to confirm, we have to do a community service project which led to this. I got the role of paparazzi. We make them feel special. We cheer them on as they go down the runway,” Banderas said.
Two guests were 15-year-old Oxnard High School student Tawny Garner and 16-year-old Ventura High School student Christopher Lytly who attended without hosts and came as each other’s dates.
“We’ve known each other for 11 years,” Garner said. “We met at an ice cream party in elementary school and then years later my friend asked for Christopher’s phone number and we decided to date.”
Both said that they enjoyed their night of dancing and entertainment.
“The people are fun. I was nervous when I went in the limo. It was fun,” Lytly said.
Bernise • Mar 13, 2014 at 8:35 pm
Hello my name is bernise Barraza and I have a brother named angel Barraza that has special needs and my brother would love to join you night to remember and I would like to sign him up for it but I’m not to sure how to do that so if anyone knows how can you please email me back on how to go about that ASAP please thank you.