The lights, the dancefloor, and the music, all each part of what makes Prom the event that it is, all what the students see. What they don’t see, is the hard work behind it all.

“(The prom committee) is going to have to try drinks to offer at prom,” said Kobe Tasker, a member of the Prom Committee. “We’re (also) going to have to get decorations set up the day of prom and get ready and look nice.”

The committee consists of Whitlock, the Junior class officers, and occasionally the help of Whitlock’s theater students.  The Junior class officers include Taylor Kincaid, Kobe Tasker, Sarah McAtee, and Mikayla Whittemore. Barb Whitlock is the head of the Prom Committee which overruns every aspect of the beloved high school event.

Whitlock says her role is also to listen to the students in charge and place orders based on what they tell her. The Junior Class officers determine the theme, the tickets, the parting gifts, the crown styles, the sashes, and the music.

Although she is the head of the mission, Whitlock says the students are the ones who do it all.

“I am the middle person who works with the companies and everything else,” said Whitlock. “I let them make all of the decisions.

Whitlock says the prom committee only puts minimal decorations up, because the ballroom already has its decor as the ballroom itself. Overdoing the theme with “cheesey” decorations would take away from the beauty of the ballroom.

“The Indiana Roof Ballroom is gorgeous; it’s the best venue in our state,” said Whitlock.

Tasker says after meeting together as a committee and thinking through the best options, the Prom Committee chose the SHS Prom of 2016’s theme to be 1-800-SOUTHPORT-PROM, going along with the traditional song theme.

Whitlock says having songs as themes rather than “Starry Night” and the “Great Gatsby” is just one of the many qualities of SHS’s prom that makes it stand out from other proms. She says she constantly hears from others SHS is the only school that does themes based on songs, instead of the classic prom themes.

“I think people might go ‘that’s a dumb theme,’ but to the world I think it’s different and cool,” said Whitlock. “If you don’t like the song, it’s (still) cute.”
Prom is once again being held in the Roof Ballroom, making tickets once again $65, but they are now going to be sold in the bookstore, instead of lunch periods like last year. Tickets are $70 at the door and students must have a student ID to purchase tickets. Tickets go on sale on April 25.