Lincoln High School Grad Night 2002

Information for Parents

Why should your seniors to go to Grad Night?

After graduation, seniors want to celebrate. Unfortunately, sometimes these celebrations have had tragic results. Students have gotten injured or worse or have gotten in legal trouble. Grad Night provides the students a way to celebrate their graduation without the dangers of drugs, alcohol, auto accidents, or violence. They are in a controlled, supervised, smoke-free environment, but can still have fun with their friends. This may be the last chance they will have to do this before they go their separate ways. Here is what you can do:

Talk to your students about their post-graduation plans.
If they decide they want to go to Grad Night, help them with the paperwork (the emergency card).
Encourage and help them to buy their tickets early.
On graduation night, help them to get to school on time and with the required paperwork.
Make sure they have a way to return from school the next morning.

Parent Volunteers

Grad Night depends on parent volunteers. It cannot happen and cannot be successful without the help of volunteers. Parents of seniors are needed, but parents of freshmen to juniors are also needed on graduation day because senior parents will be busy going to graduation. Volunteers are needed to help publicize Grad Night, sell tickets, help with fundraising, contact sponsors for donations of food or money, pick up donated food, help load the buses, and chaperone the event. Parents who want to help should join or contact the Grad Night Committee.

The Grad Night Committee

The Grad Night Committee works under the auspices of the Lincoln High School PTSA. Grad Night is covered by the PTSA's insurance.

Last year we had a cost estimate from Camelot Park of $59 per student, including bus fare, but not including food. The park requires that we pay for a minimum of 200 students, even if 200 do not show up. In the past, we have exceeded 200. The first deposit is due in May, so it is important to sell tickets before then.

Grad Night Information

Students will gather at Lincoln on Grad Night to be picked up by buses. Using the charted bus transportation is mandatory. Private transportation is not allowed. The buses will transport the students directly to and from Camelot Park in Livermore. (Click here for a map.) The students check in and are given wrist bands. They will have emergency contact cards that they give to the chaperones. These will be used to make sure no one gets left behind. The students will have filled out emergency medical forms earlier. The main chaperone has all the medical forms in a binder. The students are also given souvenir tokens, typically keyrings. The chaperones and staff at Camelot Park will make sure no one enters or leaves the facility without authorization. Students will not be allowed to come and go out of the facility. Lincoln seniors will have the entire facility to themselves all night.

Grad Night Sub-Committees

Volunteers are needed for the following sub-committees:

Food Committee: to save money, we provide food for the students. We need people to solicit donations of food from local vendors, such as pizza parlors, burrito restaurants, and sandwich places. We also need people to go after the food just before grad night and deliver them to the buses or Camelot Park.
Publicity Committee: We need people to make and distribute posters, flyers, and other media to publicize Grad Night and related activities. They need to publicize and acknowledge donations from sponsors. They need to make letters to parents informing them of Grad Night. They need to provide articles and notices on Grad Night activities to be included in the school newspaper. Students can be recruited to help with this.
Ticket Sales: We need people to organize and plan the ticket sales, man the sales booths, and collect the money. The committee needs to work out details such as when to start selling tickets, how much to collect (all at once or in installments), whether to have incentives for early sales, and what kind of incentives to offer. They need to work with the publicity committee to publicize the sales.
Entertainment: We need someone to decide on and arrange the entertainment at Grad Night that is not provided by Camelot Park: e.g. DJ, face painter, sketch artist, magician, etc.
Chaperones: Camelot Park requires 3 chaperones per 100 people. In the past around 230-240 students have attended, so we will need about 7-8 chaperones. We need people to check-in the students as they arrive at Lincoln to load into the buses. The students will check back in as they load into the buses for the return trip.
Fundraising: Most of the cost of Grad Night will be covered by ticket sales. However, extra funds are needed to provide "scholarships" to needy students who can't afford to pay for the tickets. We need people to organize the fundraising activities. In the past, we have done things like selling eggrolls at school during lunch and publicizing special school nights at local pizza parlors, where part of the profits during that night are donated to the school. We held a flea market a few years ago. We have also solicited donations from sponsors. Other ideas are welcome, as are people to follow through with them.
Committee Chairperson(s): We need one or two people to act as chairpersons for the entire Grad Night Committee, to organize meetings, coordinate the subcommittees to make sure that all bases are covered, and to be a focal point for information. They need to report the progress of the comittee to the PTSA every month.

The sub-committees need to choose a chairperson and set up their own meeting schedule. They need at least one person to report to the committee as a whole at the committee meetings.

Committee Meetings

Grad Night meetings have already been held to get things started. Camelot Park was chosen as the venue. The meetings are typically held on the second Thursday of each month at6:15 pm in the Media Center, before the PTSA meeting (except for February, when it will be on 2/7/02). Watch here or listen for announcements for further details.

As sub-committees form and more plans become made, this Web site can be used as a means of communications between the sub-committees.

Last Year's Committee Members

Coordinator: Melanie Fox
Food Committee: Linda Bayer, Nora Youngquist
Ticket Sales: Kathy Allyn, Roxie Taylor
Publicity: Valeri Roark, Irene & Dan Chitwood
Fund Raising: Kathy Vita, Darlene Marshall, Melanie Fox
Chaperones: Dennis Fox, Kathy Allyn
Bus Loading/Check-in: Lore Osaki-Horii
Webmaster: Ronald Horii

Current Committee Members

Co-chairpersons: Terri Moffat, Ronald Horii
Treasurer: Jan Theiss-Guffey
Ticket Sales: open
Entertainment: open
Fund Raising: open
Food Committee: Mary Ellen Cuykendall
Publicity: Mary Kay Tocce
Chaperones: Kathy Allyn
Bus Loading/Check-in: Lore Osaki-Horii
Webmaster: Ronald Horii

Help wanted:

Ticket sales will begin in March. We need people to manage the ticket sales. Ticket sales are normally during lunch hour, so they need to be available at lunchtime.
We need people for the fundraising committee. Food sales were the most successful fundraiser, but other ideas are welcome. We need people to organize these fundraisers.
We need more people on the food committee, including someone who can give a report at the monthly meeting.
We need someone to order the mementos to be given to the students at Grad Night, e.g. Lincoln High keychains.

This year's committee members, click here.

Return to the Grad Night home page

For questions or comments, E-Mail Ronald Horii.

Last update: 1/18/2002 by Ronald Horii, Webmaster

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