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Local prom tradition returns to Port Jeff

by Raymond Janis - June 23, 2022

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Members of the 2022 prom committee are working tirelessly behind the scenes to bring this local tradition back to life. (Left to right) Janet Stafford, Danielle Friedman, Randi DeWitt and Pauline Spiller. Photo by Raymond Janis

The Earl L. Vandermeulen High School prom, a decades-old local tradition for the Port Jefferson community, is returning on Tuesday, June 28.

Since 1958, the prom has brought community members together in a spectacular send-off of its graduating seniors. The tradition includes a secret theme decided upon by the parents, along with a complete transformation of the school around that theme.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted this tradition. Due to the lockdowns and social gathering restrictions put in place at the time, the event was severely limited in its scope and scale. The world is opening up again and so is the prom.

“This year, we’re doing a hybrid version,” said Randi DeWitt, a trustee of the Port Jefferson board of education and member of the prom committee. “Last year, it was just at The Meadow Club. This year, we’re going to do a traditional drive up at the high school as has always been done, but instead of going into the school, they’re going to head to The Meadow Club.”

An open invitation to the public

Reigniting this tradition will require active engagement on the part of the public. Community members are invited to view this year’s theme at The Meadow Club as well as the drive-up ceremony and red carpet event held at the high school.

“The tradition is that the whole area is filled with community members,” DeWitt said. “Not just the parents of the kids who are graduating, the whole community comes to view it.” She added, “That’s what we wanted to bring back: The sense of community because that is what has been lost for a couple of years due to COVID.”

DeWitt hopes for a large turnout to reward the monumental efforts of parents and the prom committee who brought this tradition to life once again. “We want [the community] to see what we’ve done here — all of our hard work — and then be here for the kids when they walk up,” she said.

A viewing of the decor and theme will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. at The Meadow Club, 1147 Route 112, Port Jefferson Station. Photos of the attendees will begin at 4:15 p.m. at the Village Center. The red carpet event will start at 6 p.m. at the high school, after which the students will head to The Meadow Club for prom night.

Port Jeff prom tradition finally makes a comeback

Port Times Record

by Kimberly Brown - July 1, 2021

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FB_IMG_1625007813662 — Photo from Kathianne Snaden

The high school prom — a tradition that has been alive for over 55 years — has finally made a comeback after a difficult year of dealing with the pandemic.

Parents of the Port Jefferson Prom Planning Committee have spent months trying to configure an ideal prom for the students in spite of the continually changing COVID-19 guidelines New York was enforcing.

Although the prom took place at The Meadow Club in Port Jefferson Station rather than at the high school, the committee was still able to go above and beyond while staying consistent with their selected carnival theme.

“I feel like this has been a bright light at the end of a long tunnel, and to be able to give the kids and the community a chance to get together to make this happen has just been a gift,” said Kim Muffly, a member of the prom planning committee. “It really has been an incredible experience.”

Since 1958, Port Jefferson has held their prom at the high school and has been fully orchestrated by the parents who rely on funding from donors and sponsors, as well as countless volunteer hours.

Each year the prom has a different theme, each one lavishly decorated by the parents to make the students feel fully immersed in their prom experience. The first prom in 1958 was themed “April in Paris” and this year the committee decided on a carnival theme.

Stilt walkers, tarot card readers, jugglers, contortionists, caricature artists, clowns, carnival games, and smokey Moroccan-themed areas with couches were set up inside, and outside the venue. All topped off with a striped carnival tent to make students feel as if they were really at the circus.

“I tried to think of a theme that would be a little more flexible because we weren’t sure what the COVID restrictions would be like,” Muffly said. “No matter where we had the prom we could keep the carnival theme, even if it was outside in the football field.”

Since a fire damaged in The Meadow Club banquet hall in 2018, inevitably shutting the building down for a few years, the venue has since revamped its space with brand new reconstruction and an elegant design.

According to Kiran Wadhwa, owner of the Meadow Club, the senior prom is just one of a few recent events the venue has taken pleasure in working with. The members of the Port Jefferson prom planning committee and the students were extremely grateful for the venue’s support and welcoming atmosphere.

“I don’t think I realized what a big deal this was until guests just kept coming up to me consistently saying thank you, thank you, thank you,” Wadhwa said. “I thought it was such a beautiful thing to see how the community really comes together.”

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PJ prom showcases early 2000s nostalgia

by Kyle Barr - July 2, 2019

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The cars lined up along the drive to Earl L. Vandermeulen High School, and besides the sounds of running motors, the graduating seniors could express nothing but awe. The entire front face of the high school was dressed in a shawl of ’90s and early 2000s nostalgia. Above the entrance, dressed on a large orange blimp calling back to the classic Nickelodeon channel logo, was a sign reading Royalodeon.

The parents of the Port Jeff graduates and members of the prom committee spent hour upon hour of their own time to help construct the pieces to the prom in the months leading up to graduation, and the entire final construction, bringing it to the high school, was done over the previous weekend.

Port Jefferson residents got to experience their efforts the evening of July 1, before the students saw it for the first time. Inside was a splattering of ’90s cartoons, from “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” to “The Wild Thornberrys” to “Rugrats,” and the entire dining area designed around “SpongeBob SquarePants.” Lanterns were dressed like jellyfish, hanging from the gym ceiling, and to one side a fully stocked glass case filled with candy was accompanied by cardboard stands of the characters from “Drake & Josh.”

Students arrived awed, not only by the design of the prom but also the number of parents who came to watch their kids walk the red carpet. Kids came ferried in sports cars, but some came in more outlandish style, arriving via boat, the Port Jefferson Jitney, a Qwik Rides Car and even a rickshaw.

Port Jeff prom committee seeks additional funding

Port Times Record

by Kyle Barr - April 8, 2019

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Port-Jefferson-2015-prom-22_glowatzw — Andy Fortier dressed as Willy Wonka during the 2015 Port Jefferson prom. File photo by Elana Glowatz

For more than 50 years, parents of students, along with volunteers, in Port Jefferson have made magic out of the stone edifice of the Port Jefferson high school.

While other area school districts host their proms in outside venues, every year, the Senior Prom Committee in Port Jeff works for months on end creating an elaborate design for the annual senior prom, tailoring the high school’s gymnasium, cafeteria and bathrooms to fit a theme, one that often takes a magical or fantasy bent. Andy Fortier, who is in charge of the prom’s construction, said he sees the prom as magical — one last time for youth to be youth before it heads into adulthood.

Earl L. Vandermeulen High School is decorated in a Peter Pan, Neverland theme for the 2018 senior prom in Port Jefferson June 25. Photo by Alex Petroski

“Prom is the most beautiful thing, you put into it what you get out of it,” he said. “When you see your kid walk down that red carpet, it’s something magical. This lets the kids be kids again for one more time.”

While the outpouring of funds from the community changes year to year, Fortier said some costs have increased close to 30 percent since he started helping with the Port Jeff prom eight years ago. It’s not so much construction material that has gone up in price, but insurance, catering and lighting, things Fortier said the committee has little control over.

Fortier, a musician and artist in the village, said work goes on all year from whatever time its volunteers are willing to give. He’s thankful for whatever people can offer, whether its work from volunteers or support from the community.

Port Jeff resident Angela Crugnale, who runs the overall operation and financing of the prom, said prices for construction materials will fluctuate from year to year, and while she said the committee does not release the total cost for the prom, this year the prices of materials were much higher than in previous years.

“It seems that this year, everything we’re purchasing has really gone up,” Crugnale said. “Everything across the board it seems has gone up from last year.”

The committee gets most of its funding from parents of the students graduating from the school, which often graduates less than 100 students per class. The 2018 graduating class numbered 89. This year’s graduating class is expected to be at 98.

The prom committee looks to the families of these graduating students to sell raffle tickets to other locals at $100 per ticket to make up much of the prom’s funding, the winner of which can win $20,000 as first prize and $300 for second. Each family of a graduating senior is asked to sell 10 tickets, though there’s nothing to force them to do so.

“It’s kind of the gift from the senior parents to the senior class,” Crugnale said. “The prom has happened since [the 1950s] either way, whether we have $100 or $900, just to say, the prom will be the prom.”

Starting in October and working through the end of June, Crugnale and Fortier said the work is nonstop, and it depends entirely on volunteers, from painting scenes and thinking of creative scenes that are also interactive. Crugnale, who started working with the prom committee in 2012, even before her first child graduated in 2012, said the school district has become more involved in the prom over time.

“I loved it from the first moment I saw it, I knew it was special,” she said. “It’s super nice kids get to be involved in something like this. I wanted this to continue to be something for all the kids in Port Jeff.”

The prom committee is hosting its annual golf outing May 6 to finance the prom. Tickets are at $150 a person for a full day of 18 holes of golf and afterward will attend a separate dinner at Harbor Grill at 6 p.m. Tickets for dinner are separate and are priced at $50 a head. Tickets are open to village residents and others alike. To reserve a foursome or for more information, residents are asked to contact Mike Ambrozy at 917-270-7436, [email protected] or Jim Desmond at 631-331-6946,
[email protected].

If residents wish to purchase raffle tickets, they can contact the prom committee at [email protected].

Port Jeff parents throw Peter Pan prom

by Alex Petroski - June 26, 2018

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Months of hard work by volunteers from the Port Jefferson community finally came to fruition June 25. Earl L. Vandermeulen’s annual senior prom, featuring a secret theme selected by the Senior Prom Committee — made up of parents and others who donate their time to pulling together the event — and arrivals to a red carpet in out-of-the-ordinary rides, went off Monday night in front of hundreds from the school and surrounding community.

This year, the high school entrance, first floor hallways, bathrooms and gymnasium were decorated in a Neverland theme, an ode to the Disney classic “Peter Pan.”

Parents of members of the senior class meet throughout the school year to vote and settle on a theme, plan the theme’s implementation, and then spend the frantic weekend between graduation Friday night and prom Monday night constructing the decorations.

“There’s a lot of people, like myself, whose kids graduated quite a while ago, who showed up and worked during the week at night or on the weekend,” said John Poulianos, a member of the committee who has been pitching in to help with the event since 1999. “I think people just feel it’s such a worthwhile event that they’re willing to give their time. It is so unique.”

Though the event was the byproduct of hard work by dozens of individuals, community members were sure to recognize the efforts of Port Jeff graduate Jon Famularo on social media.

“Your dedication makes it possible to accomplish more and deliver rich and theatrical looks for the prom,” Paul Braille wrote on Facebook.

Free Brookhaven prom boutique available for those in need

by TBR Staff - March 1, 2018

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prom boutiquew — Brookhaven Town Councilman Dan Panico, Supervisor Ed Romaine, and Councilman Mike Loguercio at the town's youth bureau's Prom Boutique. Photo from Brookhaven Youth Bureau

The Brookhaven Youth Bureau wants to provide young ladies with an opportunity to attend their prom in style, regardless of financial constraints. The Prom Boutique, located on the second floor in Brookhaven Town Hall, is decorated as a dress shop fitting room filled with prom gowns ranging in styles and fashions.

Young ladies are outfitted with a gown and other accessories that are theirs to keep. There is no charge for this service and all clients are kept strictly confidential. The program will run from March 19 to June 15, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Evening hours will also be offered April 12, May 3 and June 14 from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

For further information regarding the Town of Brookhaven Youth Bureau’s Prom Gown Program or to schedule an appointment, please call 631-451-8026 or visit brookhavenny.gov.

Throwback to past Port Jefferson classes

by Alex Petroski - September 2, 2016

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With a new school year around the corner, look back at Port Jefferson alumni through the years

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Richard Olson taught U.S. History in the Port Jefferson school district from 1967-2002. He also served as the yearbook advisor from 1988-2014.

During that time, he amassed a collection of photos from events like homecoming, prom and class trips. With a new school year set to begin, take a look back at alumni from eras gone by.

Prom can be magical for everyone

by TBR Staff - February 26, 2016

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Prom-Dress-Corsagew — The town’s Prom Boutique is open from March 7 to June 17. File photo

Brookhaven Town wants to make prom special even for teenagers who cannot afford it.

The Prom Boutique will open at Brookhaven Town Hall in March “so young ladies who qualify for assistance can be dressed from head to toe, helping to make their prom dreams come true,” according to a press release from the town.

There will be a free selection of gently used gowns, handbags and costume jewelry, as well as makeup and fragrances, between March 7 and June 17. The hours of the second-floor boutique will be Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will also be special evening hours on March 10, April 7, April 21, May 26 and June 9, which will run from 5 to 7:30 p.m.

Appointments must be made by calling 631-451-8011, and all clients’ identities will be kept confidential.

If anyone is interested in donating clothes and accessories to the initiative, which is an effort of the Department of Housing and Human Services’ Youth Bureau, they can be dropped off at the boutique on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. All clothing must be dry cleaned and pressed before it can be accepted.

Visit www.brookhaven.org for more information.

Port Jefferson holds sweet Willy Wonka-themed prom

by Elana Glowatz - June 30, 2015

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Port Jefferson school district held its 57th annual senior prom on Monday night. Parents had worked tirelessly to transform Earl L. Vandermeulen High School into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory for the event, secretly painting sets and making dummies to surprise the Class of 2015.

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