There was a line up of people waiting to take photos, sweethearts holding hands, adjusting boutonnières and tiaras, all dressed in their finest as music played from the other room.
But these people weren’t 17 and 18-year olds. In fact, one of them was 100!
Christeen Andrew from The Evergreen Seniors Centre had helped organize the first “Seniors’ Prom” at the centre. She and the staff went all out, decorating the common room with streamers, pouring bowls of punch and setting out snacks and putting on music for dancing. They even had a classic Cadillac with which people went to pose.
“A lot of these residents hadn’t even finished high school, let alone went to prom,” Andrew said. “This is a way of letting them experience that. We just took some photos, we’ve got some boutonnières that were donated to us, we got some tiaras and some ties for the men. That’s our theme this year, ties and tiaras.”
Diane Menzies, one of the residents at Evergreen wore the same dress she wore to prom in 1958.
Andrew said that the idea actually came from one of the staff at Evergreen. This year, the seniors home is publishing their first ever year book, and, as Andrew said: “You can’t have a yearbook without a prom. We’re doing a prom!”
Andrew and the staff made sure that every resident got a photo taken for prom, including those who were unable to come down to the festivities.
After residents got their photos, they made their way to the Solarium — one of the common rooms in the building — to eat, drink and be merry. One of the residents, a centenarian named James Rubletz, actually “spiked” the punch, albeit with ginger ale, to liven up the event.
Dianna Conroy, a resident of the facility, said that she was touched about how the staff put the event on for residents.
“This is wonderful that they would take their own personal time to do something like this,” she said.
As the afternoon went on, people got up and started dancing, socializing and enjoying themselves like they were 18 again.
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marc.kitteringham@campbellrivermirror.com
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