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     “Everyone [showed] up [to the prom] and everyone [thought] it looks beautiful, but they don’t realize that we agonized over whether we really wanted to spend an extra $2,000 for the fancy chairs,” Haynes said. “It costs about $10,000 to $15,000 to have the prom and that’s why you have to follow certain rules, like if we are going to hire a band or a DJ, they have to be bonded and insured because the school does not want to be liable for that.”

     Although the junior officers did most of the planning, some other junior members helped out when they needed extra advice.

     “I went to two of the meetings because some of the officers asked me to go for extra input, and the first meeting I went to was at the Convention Center and it was super stressful and very long,” junior SGA member Averi Simpson said. “The officers put so much work in with things like coming up with a date, what food to eat and just getting the Convention Center itself to use, and I am very grateful for all the work [they] put into planning prom because so many people get to benefit from it.”

     The junior SGA class also had to come up with a way to make sure every person had the opportunity to attend prom no matter their financial situation. The officers asked companies that have donated in the past, businesses that members knew the owners of and academic boosters in order to raise money to cover ticket prices. If a student could not afford their ticket, they were also given the opportunity to visit the prom closet, which is a closet of donated prom dresses that SGA organizes. Here they were able to pick out whichever prom dress they wanted.

“I have never had a child at Rose that wanted to [go to] prom and did not get to due to financial reasons… and I have been planning prom for 46 years,” Haynes said. “A couple months ago, I was at Food Lion and this girl that I do not remember came up to me and told me that I was the reason she got to go to prom, and that her teacher told her to come see me and how she got her dress from the prom closet.”

     The SGA junior officers spent many hours planning this prom, but believed it was all worth it.

     “The officers and I put countless amounts of hours into planning this prom, and we really just wanted it to be the best that it has ever been since we have missed out on so much for the past two years,” Mills said. “We [found] a lot of stress in trying to make [it] perfect for everyone since we know how hard the past few years have been on everyone.”