Excitement reigns as senior prom approaches

By Bethany A. Monk
Assistant Editor

Mary Wheat has taught for 23 years at Benicia High School and hasn’t missed a prom yet. But she doesn’t go out and buy a new dress every spring.

“I hate shopping, so I wear a uniform,” Wheat said half-jokingly Thursday.

Though she doesn’t go dress shopping or put as much planning into her prom attire as her students do, Wheat said her favorite part about being a prom chaperone is seeing the students all dressed up. “They tend to behave in a different manner. They’re in a different setting,” she said.

Wheat is the school’s activities director, responsible for organizing the prom. It’s her fourth year in the role. And as the school’s leadership adviser, Wheat has a small team of prom organizers each year who help plan the big event.

This year’s prom committee — seniors Nicholas Altman and Sarah Shafer, and juniors Alysen Folkens and Jenna Minahen — started planning in January, Wheat said. They picked the theme — “History in the Making,” after a song of the same name by Darius Rucker, lead singer of popular 1990s band, Hootie & the Blowfish — in February.

“We picked the theme a couple of months ago,” said Minahen, junior class president, as well as the prom’s theme colors of “yellow pastels and soft silvers.”

Shafer, senior class vice president, said the committee used leadership class time to work on prom details. The best part of working on the event? “Knowing everything” about the special evening, said Altman, senior class president.

Wheat credited the prom committee with also working with the prom photographer, ordering invitations and many other prom-planning details.

She said that as of Thursday, 610 Benicia High students had purchased tickets at $100 each — a drop in sales. A few years ago, about 700 students went to the prom, she said.

Wheat blamed the economy; last year also had low attendance, she said, with a little more than 600 tickets sold.

This year the big night will be held Saturday at LIVE! on Brannan Street in San Francisco, where it’s been held for at least the past eight years.

But while prom will certainly be fun, seniors Altman and Shafer said there are more pressing issues for them to concentrate on now.

“Mainly what’s on my mind is college, and trying to finish up school,” Shafer said. She recently learned of her acceptance to the University of California-Berkeley.

Altman was just invited to play baseball for the University of California-Davis. “Right now my main focus isn’t on school — it’s on baseball,” he said.

For more information about Benicia High’s prom, including a “Prom Parent Information” sheet, visit www.beniciaunified.org/bhs/