The rite of passage known as prom will take place for all La Plata County high schools over the next three Saturdays.

By the time the final prom, Ignacio High School’s, is held April 30, students and adults will have invested hundreds of hours, and local businesses will have donated tens of thousands of dollars for prizes and party goods to make the evenings special for juniors and seniors.

“Prom is a gift the junior class gives the senior class,” said Durango High School Student Council sponsor Dale Garland. “But it’s also the juniors’ largest fundraiser for their own graduation activities.”

Prom – the term comes from “promenade,” because at formal dances in the 1800s, guests entered in a grand march – has changed significantly in the 19 years Garland has served as student council sponsor.

“Certainly, the music has changed,” he said, “but how they attend has changed, too. They often go in a group or with a friend instead of hoping for a date. And I’ve always been amazed at the level of maturity of the students, how well 99.9 percent of the students act, there’s never a drunk fest or a fight.”

Bayfield High School added a prom dress closet to its offerings this year, junior class sponsor Jennifer Leithauser said.

“People who have graduated and people from the community donated almost 50 dresses,” she said. “We don’t make students prove they need one. They’re having so much fun trying them on, and they’re so excited about the fancy dresses.”

That sounds like an idea IHS might steal next year, junior class sponsor Katrina Hedrick said. It’s the only school having prom on its premises.

“In the past, we’ve gone to other buildings, the (Sky Ute) Casino, in Durango,” she said. “But this year, we have a nice enough building to have it here.”

“There hadn’t been a prom-related accident here,” Garland said about the founding of DHS After Prom by Betsy Murphy and Laurie Parkinson, the first in the county. “But there had been two or three serious accidents, and parents thought we needed to do this.”

Safety of the kids is a primary impetus for after-prom organizers.

“We’re trying to keep kids off the streets, out of hotel rooms and in a safe place,” said Laurel Waller, who has volunteered for DHS After Prom for seven or eight years. “Last year, we had to call an ambulance for a kid who had consumed several substances. We were glad to be a safe place, because if his friends had just left him in the car, he would have died.”

Leithauser said she has some concerns for Bayfield students, who will be on the road to and from Durango, where all their activities take place.

“But it’s better than when we had prom at the casino,” she said, “because students would drive to Durango for dinner, then to Ignacio for prom. Then they would drive back to Durango for after-prom and then home to Bayfield.”

All the after-prom events have policies for students who have consumed drugs or alcohol.

The DHS After Prom, the largest, which will entertain about 400 students, requires attendees to arrive before 1:30 a.m., and if students leave, they cannot return, Waller said.

“If they’re intoxicated, we have friends bring them in where we can keep an eye on them,” she said.

The trick is making after-proms enticing so students choose to go there rather than other parties. Area businesses step up, the after-prom parent-organizers and teachers said, but the parents of underclassmen at the schools have not, leaving some concerns about the continuation of the events in 2017.

“We’ll have inflatables, a photo booth, karaoke, a casino, bingo and a food court,” Waller said. “And the prizes alone ... We have nine grand prizes worth around $1,000 each, with things like bikes, Purgatory (Resort) ski passes, a complete dorm package with a refrigerator, TV and bedding, high-tech ones like big-screen TVs and iPads. Of course, you have to stay until the end for those, but we’ll be giving away hundreds of prizes throughout the night, every five, 10 minutes, like gift cards, chocolate, computers, headphones.”

The Bayfield After Prom will offer about 130 prizes, organizer Shannon Miller said, with swag bags for the first 80 students who arrive. They’re taking over the Boys & Girls Club of La Plata County, and will offer their own photo booth, a giant Twister game, karaoke, pool and foosball and dodgeball and pool tournaments.

Marla Stills is volunteering for the second year to help organize the AHS After Prom, which will entertain about 100 students. It also will provide a cornucopia of prizes and a number of activities, including a bouncy house, blackjack tournament and local henna artist Molly Arms.

“Durango merchants have been so generous,” she said, “food and so many prizes, to help us help the students build wonderful prom memories.”

abutler@durangoherald.com

The schedule

Residents can expect to see a lot of elegantly dressed high school students around the county for the next three Saturdays as prom season is in full swing. Except for the Durango High School After Prom, which allows the public to check out the decorations and set up at 11:30 p.m., they are all closed to the public.

Here’s where the students will be and when:

Saturday

Animas High School Prom, 7-11 p.m. at River Bend Ranch.

AHS After Prom, 11:30 p.m.-2 a.m. at the Durango Community Recreation Center.

Bayfield High School Prom 8 p.m.-midnight at the Fort Lewis College Student Union Ballroom.

BHS After Prom, 11 p.m.-2 a.m. at Boys & Girl Club of La Plata County.

April 23

Durango High School Prom, 8 p.m.-midnight at the Fort Lewis College Student Union Ballroom.

DHS After Prom, midnight-4 a.m. at the Durango Community Recreation Center.

April 30

Ignacio High School Prom, 8 p.m.-midnight at the new school’s commons area.

An IHS After Prom is tentatively being scheduled.