In the jungle, the mighty jungle, few graduates - or their parents slept on Friday night. The San Lorenzo Valley High Class of 2011 Grad Night made sure of that.
In what is perhaps the greatest display of community collaboration in our valley, the parents of the senior class, with help of the whole community, staged a spectacular event for the graduating class that began around 9PM and provided food, entertainment and myriad activities until dawn.
Tradition, cooperation, creativity, sacrifice and a ton of work combined to transform the familiar facilities into a fantasy jungle that clearly delighted and impressed the new young adults who waited patiently in front of the school building to have their bags and bodies searched before being allowed access into a dark, treacherous passage that wound beneath a massive waterfall leading eventually into a one night theme park complete with “Survivor” like sets of inflatable games and challenges spread throughout the senior lawn and beyond.
The well lit outdoor area included live music, about a dozen separate multiplayer games and of course a huge ‘lake”. It contrasted sharply with the dimly lit interior that bore little resemblance to a gym. One wall was completely taken over with a beautiful buffet that offered a seemingly endless amount of tropical fruit and other delectables. In the center of the building was an elaborate “Voodoo Lounge” where drinks were served. Assorted gaming tables, a dance floor and disc jockey filled the other half of the building and along the perimeter were various stations offering a variety of primitive jungle rituals.
Note: I’m not sure when the grad night tradition first began at SLV but I can remember more than a dozen different facades created at the entrance to the school and I was intimately involved in two of them and tangentially in a few others going back to 2001. Each was unique, but the common thread was a spirit of collaboration among parents that is almost unparalleled and an experience for the graduates that exudes pure joy as well as a tremendous sense of awe and gratitude over the obvious effort expended on their behalf.
On the day of their commencement, the opportunity to celebrate with their classmates as graduates, all about to embark on new journeys, cements the bonds they’ve created and provides them with a shared memory and a smile that will likely last for long time. Congratulations to all involved.
In what is perhaps the greatest display of community collaboration in our valley, the parents of the senior class, with help of the whole community, staged a spectacular event for the graduating class that began around 9PM and provided food, entertainment and myriad activities until dawn.
Tradition, cooperation, creativity, sacrifice and a ton of work combined to transform the familiar facilities into a fantasy jungle that clearly delighted and impressed the new young adults who waited patiently in front of the school building to have their bags and bodies searched before being allowed access into a dark, treacherous passage that wound beneath a massive waterfall leading eventually into a one night theme park complete with “Survivor” like sets of inflatable games and challenges spread throughout the senior lawn and beyond.
The well lit outdoor area included live music, about a dozen separate multiplayer games and of course a huge ‘lake”. It contrasted sharply with the dimly lit interior that bore little resemblance to a gym. One wall was completely taken over with a beautiful buffet that offered a seemingly endless amount of tropical fruit and other delectables. In the center of the building was an elaborate “Voodoo Lounge” where drinks were served. Assorted gaming tables, a dance floor and disc jockey filled the other half of the building and along the perimeter were various stations offering a variety of primitive jungle rituals.
Note: I’m not sure when the grad night tradition first began at SLV but I can remember more than a dozen different facades created at the entrance to the school and I was intimately involved in two of them and tangentially in a few others going back to 2001. Each was unique, but the common thread was a spirit of collaboration among parents that is almost unparalleled and an experience for the graduates that exudes pure joy as well as a tremendous sense of awe and gratitude over the obvious effort expended on their behalf.
On the day of their commencement, the opportunity to celebrate with their classmates as graduates, all about to embark on new journeys, cements the bonds they’ve created and provides them with a shared memory and a smile that will likely last for long time. Congratulations to all involved.
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