Montclair High School’s Project Graduation kicked off last night at 9 pm with 11 school buses, 2 EMT trucks and about four police cars. The graduates hung out of the bus windows begging to be told where they were going. I tried getting the secret location out of the EMTs who had the information loaded in their GPS but they gave me nothin’!
They took off down Midland Avenue with the sirens blaring as we cheered them on and the hooting and hollering could be heard all the way down the road. They drove all over town for about an hour, sirens blaring, with parents and residents cheering them on from the streets until they headed to the secret location– Fun Time America!
After a fun all-nighter, the graduates arrived back at MHS at 5:30 am!
Graduate Rachel Kaplan says of the night, “It was really nice for all of the seniors to be together for one last time. The place had a lot of fun stuff like laser tag, a simulator, arcade games, a bungee moonwalk. At around 3 am, a lot of people were sitting in groups signing yearbooks and getting really sentimental.”
Project Graduation is an all-night party for high school graduates that begins immediately after the graduation ceremony and goes all night. It is an opportunity for the graduates to spend quality time with their classmates in a fun and safe alcohol and drug-free environment. The Project Graduation event is planned mostly by parents of seniors, with much help and support from all parents, high school staff and the entire Montclair Community.
Congratulations to all of the graduates from Barista Kids!
It was a great night. My favorite part was the parade. I was so grumpy about walking down to see them drive by (uncharacteristically, I assure you). The whole graduation had been exhausting–not so much sitting in the hot auditorium through the ceremony, but getting geared up for the whole rite of passage–so when it was over, and I had settled into the sofa at my friend’s after-party with beer in hand, I was reluctant to make the effort of walking a block and standing on the side of the road just to wave at a bus. But I went along.
First the cops came with lights flashing and sirens blaring, and then the firetruck, and they were moving very slowly. Then came the buses, one after the other, full of adolescents. But they didn’t seem like the recalcitrant, rebellious, stubborn, easily embarrassed beings that we’d come to know. They waved and shouted out the windows, beaming with joy–joy at having achieved something of true adult significance. And we parents–the naggers, worriers, taskmasters, yellers, jailers etc–were transformed into adolescents, waving and cheering and banging and blowing noisemakers. Parents acting like kids, kids acting like adults, all whipped up into a frenzy–it was uncanny.
What really surprised me, though, was that at that moment it felt as though every townsfolk was there in spirit, out in the streets, cheering together in celebration of this incredible project, really the most important task we work for and strive together to achieve: the education of our citizens.
It was like nothing I have ever experienced.
Well said, Walleroo. It was a great night.