UNDERCLASSMAN PARENTS
A SPECIAL POST JUST FOR YOU

PLANNING AHEAD:  THE KEY TO SUCCESS

Missed our first blog?  CLICK HERE to learn all about Project Safe Grad

So you have read our first blog and you know all about Project Safe Grad, now what? First let's talk cost.  Why $27,000? What is the breakdown?

$20,000 - $21,000	Event Venue
$750	Food for Graduation Reception
$3,000	Insurance, Buses, Bus Drivers, Tee-Shirts & Beach Towels, Westerly Sun Thank You Ad
$2,000	Play It Forward to Junior Class

What is the best way to tackle this?
The below information are suggestions only.  Your Class may decide to tackle this event in a whole different manner.  That is completely up to your committee.

FRESHMAN YEAR:

• During the Spring of Freshman Year 2 to 3 parents should form a "Pre-Committee" for your class.  Don't worry - you don't have to be Committee Chair by starting and/or volunteering in this "Pre-Committee"
• The "Pre-Committee" should begin drafting an informative letter that will be mailed out in October of Sophomore Year.  

SOPHOMORE YEAR

• Acquire your classes database in excel form from the Stonington High School Office.  This do this, make a request through Mr. Friese.  Feel free to email him anytime - he is there to help!
• Set up a gmail account with every parent's email in your contacts.  (You will use this to send out eblasts to your class going forward).
• Use the excel database to extract mailing addresses and make labels.
• Your letter should list all the details of the party - use our first blog for your details.  Don't be shy, spread the word!  Let everyone know that this is an awesome Stonington High School tradition, and an expensive one too.  Include your classes email address (gmail) in your letter so if any parents have questions, they know how to reach you.
• Ask each family to donate $30 (per student) to your Class's Project Safe Grad Fund.  Set a deadline to receive the funds.  A suggestion would be:  mail out letters on Oct 1st and set a deadline to receive funds by Oct 31st.
• Request that the families send the checks to the SHS Office. Find out who to make the checks out to.  It will most likely be:  Class of 20## Graduation Party Committee.  Make sure this information is clearly written in your letter.  Ask the SHS Office set up a mailbox for your committee.  
• Mail - yes, snail mail - your letters out to all families.
• One week after you have mailed your letters, send out an eblast asking families if they have received your letter.  Then, take the opportunity to list all the facts regarding the party again in your email.
• Once your letters are mailed check the mailbox weekly.  Open a bank account and deposit all checks.  Keep a record of who paid.
• If need be, in a few months time, send a reminder via email to only those families who did not send in the $30 during the first request.

JUNIOR YEAR

• Request an updated database of your Class in September.  Add new students and take off students who have left the school.  Remember to check email addresses and update your gmail contact list appropriately.
• In October, send out your second installment of your family contribution letters.  Ask for another $30.  Follow the same steps above for composing the letter and collecting the funds.  
• During February of Junior Year, send out an eblast asking for committee members.  You should have your first official full committee meeting in early March of Junior Year.
• It is a tradition that the Junior Class hosts a graduation reception for the Senior Class.  This is really a wonderful tradition, see below for specifics on this event.

JUNIOR CLASS HOSTS THE SENIOR YEAR GRADUATION RECEPTION

• Graduation begins at 6:30pm on the last day of school.  At the close of the ceremony, the Seniors and their families will come into the SHS Cafeteria/Commons for a Junior Class hosted reception.
• This will take some planning ahead on the Junior Class but it is completely manageable so don't fret.
• Plan on feeding 800 people.
• The Senior Class should, if they budgeted and collected funds well, provide the Junior Class with $750 to purchase food and paper goods.
• The Junior Class will then purchase pizza (Big Y), grinders, veggie plates, fruit plates, and lemonade.
• The Junior Class will also buy paper goods such as table clothes, plates, cups, and napkins.
• The Junior Class will (by use of Sign Up Genius) request Junior families to bake brown & white themed baked goods.  Cookies, brownies, cupcakes, and specialty items are perfect and special.  
• The Junior Class will (by use of Sign Up Genius) request Junior families to donated bottles of water.
• Balloons and home grown flower arrangements make wonderful decorations around the Commons Area.
• On graduation day, Junior Class parents and student volunteers will arrive at the school to decorate and prepare for the reception.  Shifts will be divvied out ahead of time for pre, during, and after reception duties.
• At the close of graduation, Seniors and their families will make their way to the Commons area to partake in the After Graduation Reception.
• The reception last 45 minutes to 1 hour.  During this time Junior Parents keep stocking the food tables while Junior students assist in systematically passing out the Senior Class tee-shirts and beach towels to the graduates.

JUNIOR CLASS RECEPTION REFLECTION.....

Last year, the graduates of the Class of 2015 began to walk into the Commons area around 7:30pm with their families.  They were dressed to impress.  The girls in their dresses and the boys in their shirts and ties underneath their graduation robes. Happiness filled the Commons with smiles a mile wide.  The graduates and their families enjoyed the reception very much.  Baked goods were a hit as well as the veggie platters (who knew?).  Graduated Seniors made their way over to the Junior students and picked up their pre-assembled tee-shirt and beach towel bundle.  The Seniors also noted their specific assigned bus # for the Graduation Party which would be immediately following the reception.

Slowly the crowd began to disperse.  Seniors made their way to other locations in the school to change.  By 8:30pm all of the Seniors returned to the Commons area dressed in their newly acquired brown Class of 2015 tee shirts and comfy shorts and sneakers.  Senior Class parent chaperons also emerged dressed in comfortable attire too.  Relatives said their goodbyes to their graduated Seniors. Before you knew it there was a sea of brown tee-shirts in front of all of the Junior parents. One huge crowd of very happy graduates from the Class of 2015.  To be accurate:  93% of the graduated class stood before us.

Senior parent chaperons surrounded the graduates.  The crowd hushed and the leading Senior Class Parent chaperon announced loudly "Class of 2015 it is time to board the busses and head to your Graduation Party!"  The crowd bellowed with cheers and hoots and happy hoorahs!  And seriously, within 3 minutes the graduated Class of 2015 made their way out of the Commons area and boarded their busses.

The Junior Class parents and students were literally the only people left in the Commons,  Many of us with tears in our eyes knowing that in one year's time, that will be our children heading out to their final field trip as a Stonington High School student.

True Story.