On February 22nd, we were able to host a Senior Prom for the people at the Gary and Mary West Wellness Center. Despite the strict time constraint placed on us, the event was overall successful for what we did have time to do. As part of the decorations team, I helped bring over the supplies that were needed and set-up. During the event, we served the attendees fruits and pastries, held dance lessons, and had other activities going on in the corner of the room. A good number of the attendees enjoyed the snacks, especially the blueberry cheesecake (shoutout to pastry chef, Meena!!). I’m glad that we were able to hand out sandwiches to take-home as many of those who visit the center are food insecure. This is due to the fact that many of those who visit the center are from low-income backgrounds or homeless. As a result, picking the Gary and Mary West Center was the best option to host the senior prom at. It was especially heart-warming to see how much fun the attendees had and how much they appreciated the event.
At the start of the event, we were able to welcome in the guests to their seats and hand out a few star wands as party favors. Seeing the smiles on their faces of those I gave the party favors subdued some of the inner stress I had for if the event would go well. The festivities started to kick in more once the salsa instructors from the UCSD Salsa Society came out for their lessons. During the salsa lesson, I had a woman named Alba as my partner. She was telling me how she is more familiar with bachata and wanted to dance during the bachata lesson, but couldn’t find a partner. She was grateful to me for being able to partner with her for salsa and she seemed to have a lot of fun. I was happy to be able to dance with her even though it's not something I would usually do. It was interesting to hear Alba talk more about her dancing days in her past. We ended the event with the raffle and by handing out the goody bags to those who were leaving.
Despite our scramble to set-up in time and provide as many activities as we could for the attendees, the event was overall a success! There were some minor setbacks with the time needed to fully serve and the lack of engagement with the side activities in the beginnings of the event. However, afterwards everything else turned out well!
At the start of the event, we were able to welcome in the guests to their seats and hand out a few star wands as party favors. Seeing the smiles on their faces of those I gave the party favors subdued some of the inner stress I had for if the event would go well. The festivities started to kick in more once the salsa instructors from the UCSD Salsa Society came out for their lessons. During the salsa lesson, I had a woman named Alba as my partner. She was telling me how she is more familiar with bachata and wanted to dance during the bachata lesson, but couldn’t find a partner. She was grateful to me for being able to partner with her for salsa and she seemed to have a lot of fun. I was happy to be able to dance with her even though it's not something I would usually do. It was interesting to hear Alba talk more about her dancing days in her past. We ended the event with the raffle and by handing out the goody bags to those who were leaving.
Despite our scramble to set-up in time and provide as many activities as we could for the attendees, the event was overall a success! There were some minor setbacks with the time needed to fully serve and the lack of engagement with the side activities in the beginnings of the event. However, afterwards everything else turned out well!