DEL.ICIO.USUpdated: 11:44 a.m. November 17, 2008
Seniors get a prom to remember
Harrison High wrestling team throws dance party for assisted-living residents
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, November 14, 2008
It was a senior prom for true seniors, courtesy of a wrestling team.
Helen Heyhmeyer — who shaved a few years off her age when she said she was 90 — lit up the dance floor in her red satin blouse and matching lipstick.
Allen Sullivan/aesullivan@ajc.com
Lorry Caldwell and Harrison High School wrestler Scott Rowe (right) dance as Lucas Mosher and Helen Hehmeyer (couple at left) share the floor.
Allen Sullivan/aesullivan@ajc.com
Bill Kirby (second from left) poses with Harrison High School students Tori Sowell (from left), Nicole Henschel and K.J. Bell for a photo. Kirby, originally from Cookville, Tenn., made at least three trips to the photo area, with no less than one girl on each arm.
Allen Sullivan/aesullivan@ajc.com
Eleanor Brown (from left), Edythe Rice, Harrison High School wrestler Peter Mosher and Lou Mazzella mingle.
Louis Mazzella, 81, dressed in fashionable black, maneuvered his walker around the dance floor to tell the women, “You look beautiful. You’re gorgeous.”
Edythe Rice, 89, and Mary Rozear, 84, their dancing days haven given way to walkers, tapped their feet in time to the music Thursday.
There was plenty of room for eight walkers, five wheelchairs, two canes and a baby stroller on the Harvest Ball dance floor at Heritage of Brookstone assisted living facility in Kennesaw.
“I have never been where young people and old people intermingled,” said 77-year-old Joanne Hoenstine, who is recovering from a stroke. “It makes me so happy to see everybody smiling. My husband is in Emory Hospital with cancer. I needed this. I needed to be pumped up.”
Harrison High School’s 55 wrestlers and wrestlerette team managers sponsored the dance that became a community project. Wrestling coach Tom Fiacco came up with the idea.
“I just believe that we’re very fortunate and sometimes tend to take more than we give,” Fiacco said. “I wanted the wrestlers and wrestlerettes to understand the importance of giving.”
Understand, they did. The students spent hours in Fiacco’s basement converting cardboard into a harvest scene of fences, corn stalks and a red barn as the backdrop for prom pictures. They issued invitations to 45 Heritage of Brookstone residents. who were escorted to the dance by team members.
The community eagerly helped. Kelley Maddox of Kennesaw, mother of wrestlerette Dresden Maddox, arranged refreshments through NorthStar Church volunteers and created 50 corsages and boutonnieres for the guests. Brenton Fowler of Powder Springs, a Harrison High senior and brother of wrestler Greg Fowler, provided the music. He was prepared with Frank Sinatra and Big Band music, but it was “Alley Oop” and “Purple People Eater” that got people dancing.
Students filled the Heritage at Brookstone mezzanine — wrestlers in their oxford shirts, coordinating ties and slacks; wrestlerettes in their thoughtfully chosen party dresses and heels, a few helping wrestlers tie their ties. They practiced conversation topics to engage their guests and, as the music started up, practiced their jitterbug dance steps.
Parents instructed them in the proper way to pin on a boutonniere and corsage while Fiacco worked on their social graces. His guidance punctuated their hesitation: “Go talk to somebody … older than you”; “Go find a pretty lady to take a picture with.”
Kerry Bell, father of a team captain, K.J. Bell of Kennesaw, photographed residents with students in front of a barn backdrop and gave each a copy before the dance ended at 8 p.m.
Off in a corner, former Newnan resident Bobbie Manning, 80, demonstrated the moon walk for a clutch of students. “I thought I would go ahead and let them get the laugh,” she said.
The lively mood showed on residents’ faces. “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world,” said Elizabeth Galloway, 83. “They’re all just as cute as they can be.”
The students planned for the traditional prom king and queen, and parents donated two crowns. At 7 p.m., K.J. crowned Rozear queen and kissed her on the cheek. As wrestlerette Claire Brummeler of Powder Springs crowned king Mazzella, he kissed her cheek first.
The prom king and queen adjusted their walkers for a brief dance to “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” Then, 55 students entertained with a floor-shaking dance, “Cha Cha Slide.”
Rozear glided on her walker across the floor to convince Mazzella they should wear their crowns to breakfast and to announce, “They said I was to get a kiss and I haven’t gotten it.”
Mazzella leapt to his feet and obliged, and the dance went on.
“I had no idea it was going to be this lively,” Mazzella said.
Services »
