Tag Archives: prom

we did it! church farm boys are going to prom (in style)

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So, if you all remember recently, I wrote a post about Church Farm School. And getting the boys to prom. I also remarked that there are tons of places to help girls get ready and go to prom but not boys.

any fairy godmothers or godfathers out there who can pay it forward for the boys at church farm school so they can go to their very first prom?

So I am thrilled that the community at large came together for these boys from Church Farm School and yesterday I heard from Jenn Frederick from Fox29 that she had some good news. This is after I had heard from friends and churches that they were helping these boys as well.

Then this morning came two teases in the FOX 29 Good Day Philadelphia newscast before the big reveal!

First:

Then came Jenn Frederick’s big reveal and I was reduced to tears of happiness for these boys:

This is amazing! I can’t tell you how happy I am! This is the school that I happen to be in ordinately fond of, and I attend events there once in a while. It’s a beautiful school, and as a matter of fact, their greenhouse program years ago was started by none other that Edith Lockwood, one of the two Lockwood sisters of Loch Aerie in Frazer.

When I first posted this some asked why a “ritzy” private school needed help to go to prom. And then I realized that so many people right here in Chester County. Have no idea about the mission of Church Farm School. That these are boys here being given a chance at a future and college. These are kids on scholarship who worked hard for this opportunity. There is no silver spoon in any of their mouths, what they do is merit based. And these are amazing kids.

This is a Church founded in the light of the Episcopalian church and their principles a century ago.

The Church Farm School was founded by the Reverend Dr. Charles W. Shreiner in 1918. Dr. Shreiner had long envisioned a school where boys could develop their minds and bodies and grow to productive, meaningful adulthood.

Originally home to 15 boys, the school was focused on instilling its students with character according to three clear tenets: the value of religion, the value of hard work and the value of education. Students were given room and board in exchange for their continued efforts to pursue personal, physical and academic growth. And, just as it still does today, the school opened its doors to the families of boys who may not have otherwise been able to financially afford such a valuable opportunity.

Today, Church Farm School is a boarding/day college preparatory school for boys of all backgrounds in grades 9-12. It offers a positive, structured home life, an outstanding private school education, a competitive athletic program and recreational opportunities. In addition, thanks to the generosity and continued support of our donors, alumni and other organizations, Church Farm School offers a liberal scholarship to every student. Over the course of its history, the school has provided generations of young men with the skills necessary to be successful in all aspects of life.

Although the school has necessarily evolved and changed to keep pace with the world around it, what remains unchanged is its steadfast allegiance to its founding principles. All students at Church Farm School are required to attend weekly chapel services and to participate in their choice of numerous diverse community service programs. For more than 100 years, CFS has provided a safe, structured environment, extremely competitive academic and athletic programs and a commitment to individual personal growth for hundreds of young men from across the nation and around the world.

~ History of Church Farm School from their website

And these boys had never gone to prom. Every kid should have the opportunity to go to prom. some kids choose not to, but others want the experience. And because of my fondness for this school when my friend who works there, put it out into the universe that she had this crazy idea of wanting these boys to go to a prom at their sister school, Linden Hall in Lancaster, I decided to write about it and share this message.

There has been an outpouring of support, including from one of my other favorite places, St. David’s Church in Wayne, Who lives their Episcopalian mission every day giving back within the community.

This all makes my heart happy. We live in a world that is very ugly some days, and to find the goodness in humankind once in a while is just so nice. Fox 29 devoted a total of close to 8 1/2 minutes of airtime to Church Farm School today, and they helped get the boys the rest of the way there to go to their prom. But they also focused on the core values of the school and the fabulous colleges that these boys are getting into and getting financial aid and assistance so they can go. This was an incredible gift to the school on the part of Fox 29 and their morning program. [CLICK HERE FOR STORY ON FOX29]

So enjoy the sunshine and if you are interested in helping Church Farm School check out their website.

#BloggingForGood

any fairy godmothers or godfathers out there who can pay it forward for the boys at church farm school so they can go to their very first prom?

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Church Farm School is a wonderful institution. And it gives deserving boys a chance at education and opportunity that might not necessarily find them. So it’s not your average silver spoon private school.

Because they are not your average silver spoon private school, they don’t always get the opportunity to do things a lot of high schoolers get to do, like go to prom. Prom is a right of passage and this year for the first time, they have been invited by a sister school to come to prom.

Prom wear is not int he average budget of a lot of these kids so when I saw a message posted on social media I knew I needed to pay it forward, because while there are tons of organizations to help girls get dressed for prom, they don’t exist for boys. Here’s the message:

Hi Malvern! Please delete if this is not permitted.

I work for Church Farm School, which is an all boys’ Boarding School grades 9-12 in Exton, PA. Our boys have pretty much never had a Prom before. This year we are excited to have been invited to our sister school’s Prom. So we have a group of juniors and seniors who are eager for the chance to attend. However, access to formalwear can be difficult for our student body. If anyone has suits or other formalwear that they would consider donating to our Clothes Closet or has coupons to formalwear stores/rentals, we would be so grateful for any assistance.

The prom is April 29th, 2023

Please email development@gocfs.net if you are willing to help out.

So how about it? Can you help? Even if you can sponsor a tux rental? Any formalwear businesses out there which could help last minute?

We want kids to all have these great experiences, so how about a little Cinderella magic here? They promise to get home at a reasonable pumpkin hour.

Do it for the boys.

Thanks for your consideration!

prom season means prom reminders

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Victoria Pan, a senior at Downingtown East High School, earned the grand prize in the Positive Prom Message contest. This is her image as published on Facebook. See https://www.facebook.com/chestercountyAVOID/  https://www.facebook.com/DowningtownAreaCTC

It’s prom season. And well, prom is a lot different then the “good old days”. This beautiful illustration was the Positive Prom Message winner and Miss Victoria Pan at Downingtown East is the artist.  I hope Victoria doesn’t mind me featuring her art in this post – it is a beautifully executed and powerful piece of art that demonstrates maturity beyond her high school years.  Plus I just like it.

A lot of these proms are not close to home.  They can be at venues quite far away.   Lots of schools have parent group sponsored after prom activities,  instead of after parties of glory days gone by.

No matter how time has passed, it is still a terrific night to be a teenager and a nail biter of an evening to be a parent.

You want your kids to have fun. But you want them home in one piece. Proms need ground rules.

Who is driving to the prom? Who is picking up from prom? When do they come home?

What is the distance between the prom venue and the after prom event and to the various domiciles of kids? How long are these after prom events that schools and parents sponsor? I know of one that runs from 11 pm to 5 am. So, if a kid has a Cinderella license in PA and drives to prom, how are they supposed to drive legally to one of these post prom events? If parents are doing the chauffeuring, when do they get to sleep that night of prom?

When did prom get so complicated?  Or was it always this complicated but when we were teenagers we just did not pay attention to other than who we were going with, who we were sitting with at a table at prom and what dress were we wearing?

Yes, my junior prom way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth….

I do remember the whole dress shopping of it all.   We didn’t show a lot of skin back then, and the heels? Well our mothers made sure we could walk in them if we wanted to wear them. And there was a lot of “no” when it came to dress choices and parental eye rolling that we even suggested wearing a dress that made us look like hoochie koochie mamas.

Today if my friends and I were teenagers and we wore what we were allowed to wear back then, we would have looked like we were sporting Morman “modest ” clothing.

I also remember my mother and her friends rotated dresses between them – so if we were going to more than one prom it was like the mom version of “rent the runway.”  We borrowed someone else’s dress so we had no prompeat dresses from school to school. Who knew it wasn’t a new dress? (we’d never tell!)

Now prom is a big business and well half the guys don’t wear tuxedos anymore.  And what is with this trend that the guy’s tie and/or cummerbund matches the girl’s dress color? Is this like prom Garanimals? Sorry it is a trend I think is dumb.  It’s like yo Barbie, Ken will match you. And a great deal of the girls’ gowns do indeed look like Barbie inspired clothing, which I do not know is a good thing. It just is.

Girls are doing wedding caliber hair and make-up and nails.  How much does prom even cost today?

And then there is the whole promposal thing.  You can’t just ask someone to prom. It has to be this whole production.  Prom bombing a kid’s car to ask them to prom is one way to do it.

I saw this in 2011 and snapped a photo

These promposals have gotten competitive…and expensive.  At Bucks County’s Pennsbury High School they have been banned during school hours.

And wow, these promposals whether you are male or female seem like big pressure to me.  And what happens if someone turns your promposal down? Then what?

But once we get past the where the proms are, where the after parties and events are, and who is wearing what and who is going with whom, it boils down to kids being safe.

State Representative Duane Milne sent around a sober reminder today via e-mail.  I close with that because well, have fun kids but stay safe.  And take pity on your dear “old” parents who now understand why our parents were glad prom season came but once a year for a brief window of time!