The annual Senior Alcohol Free Entertainment party celebrated 25 years this graduation.
Students gathered around blackjack tables and a slot machine in hopes of winning enough money to buy enough raffle tickets to win a Nintendo Wii or a laptop computer.
In a bingo hall, they competed for a variety of prizes, such as waterguns.
In the activity gym, they climbed an inflatable wall, nearly as tall as the gym, battled each other with padded pole arrms and tried their luck bull riding.
Representatives of Red Bull visited with their Mini Cooper and gave free drinks to everyone.
Kyle Moore won the Wii, and Cody Heeren and Shena Spears won the laptops.
“It was a lot of fun,” said organizer and parent Jill Burnside. “I think the kids had a lot of fun.”
Most of the graduates attended, she said. About 120 out of 130.
And new this year was a “nightclub” with a dance floor, and the graduates enjoyed it, she said.
SAFE started in 1984 in response to a nationwide program called Project Graduation that sought to combat teen fatalities that were occurring on the night following graduation, Coreen Melcher said.
Melcher was among the parents who helped inaugurate the all-night party for Sweet Home High School graduates.
Statistics at the time showed that more teens were killed on prom night and graduation night than any other night of the year.
“Some of us went to a meeting in Salem, and we all got excited about it,” Melcher said. They started organizing the first event in late March and managed to raise $1,400 to get things rolling.
Similar annual all-night parties continue throughout the United States under the moniker Project Graduation, offering graduating seniors an all-night party alternative to party-hopping, keeping them off the roads and preventing them from becoming an accident statistic.
“The purpose is to provide them with a safe place to celebrate after graduation,” said Alice Burnett, committee secretary for the 2009 SAFE party. “Our motto this year is ‘Keep it a night of triumph instead of tragedy.'”
Parents decorate the halls of Sweet Home High School and provide activities and prizes for the graduates using volunteers and donations.
It seems to have worked, Melcher said. It is popular with many students.
“Back in the day, we had three or four kids who didn’t attend,” Melcher said, adding that Sweet Home’s was probably one of the most successful statewide.
“We incorporated and just started working,” she said. When they started, she and Glenda Melcher made decorations in their basements. The first one included midnight bowling, an Elks breakfast, swimming, volleyball and dancing.
Melcher said that Carol Hagle and Wende Jordan were particularly instrumental the first year.
“Each year, it’s grown. Now it’s just a given,” Melcher said. “It’s great that it’s continued on. Who knows what it’s prevented over the years.”
The trick is to make sure it’s fun and attractive to students, she said. That means a variety of activities, and it’s also a last chance for the graduating class to get together before moving on into adult life and college.
The SAFE party raises some $20,000 per year to purchase entertainment, buy prizes and give cash to graduates.
That figure goes up and down from year to year, Burnett said. This year the donations were on the down side.
“They’re really not bad,” she said. “For the economy, it’s been really good.”
The SAFE committee ran a variety of fund-raising events throughout the year.
“The money is used to provide the entertainment at the party,” Burnett said. SAFE contracts with a company to provide entertainment pieces. “Everyone that comes and stays the whole night will get cash at the end of the night.”