Current Notre Dame sophomore were seniors in high school when the COVID-19 pandemic prematurely ended the high school experience of students worldwide in March 2020. This Saturday, they will have the chance to live out a quintessential high school tradition: prom.
Complete with a photo booth, DJ, Insomnia Cookies, Martin’s catering and flowers from Irish Gardens, Notre Dame sophomore class council’s “Prom Re-Do” dance will welcome 950 students and 50 volunteers to the Duncan Student Center’s Dahnke Ballroom from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday for a high school prom-themed dance.
Sophomore class council president Paul Stoller and vice president Lulu Romero have been planning the event since July. They said they hoped to hold it last year, but COVID-19 restrictions prevented them from doing so.
“[Prom Re-Do] was our brainchild from when we started running for this position last year and wanted to give back a moment that we all missed out on our senior year of high school,” Romero said. “We’re not trying to replace but rather add to what we all hoped to get. This is going to be a fun night for everyone as we wrap up our sophomore year.”
Stoller said interest in the dance has been so great that the Dahnke Ballroom will be at “max capacity” Saturday night. He said the dance will be as large as the 100 Days Dance the senior class holds each year to mark their final 100 days of classes.
“I don’t think there’s ever been a non-senior dance this size,” he noted.
He said nearly 1,500 students — three-quarters of the sophomore class — filled out the dance interest form, and about 500 are currently on the waitlist to get tickets. Available tickets will be distributed to those on the waitlist in order of who signed up first.
Stoller also noted that while it was a difficult decision not to include Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross sophomores in the dance, it was necessary due to capacity restrictions.
Stoller and Romero said they believe the prom theme is what attracted so many students to the dance.
“I think our class is pretty unique,” Stoller said. “To say we’ve been through a lot is kind of an understatement. After all we lost our senior year, everything we had to go through our freshman year, people are just really excited to get back what we really deserve to have.”
He added although the process of planning the dance has been expensive and time-consuming, he feels it has been the “most rewarding thing” the sophomore class council could have done for their classmates.
“Our whole goal with this was to make it a really, really good dance for people, especially because it’s something everyone’s looking forward to,” Romero said. “We wanted to put in as much thought as possible starting from the beginning to make sure that everything went smoothly. Overall, we are really proud of the work that class council put into it ... hopefully, it’ll be a night to remember.”
‘I don't think there’s ever been a non-senior dance this size’: 950 to attend sophomore ‘Prom Re-Do’ dance
The Class of 2024 will host a “Prom Re-Do” dance for 950 Notre Dame students in the Dahnke Ballroom from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday night.
