A group of Grade 9 students have stepped in to throw a prom for some Ottawa seniors who missed out on the high school tradition.
Wearing corsages, residents at the Arnprior Villa retirement home mingled, ate, danced and played euchre at their senior prom on Tuesday.
Staff at the retirement residence said a spring prom was an experience that many seniors felt they missed out on. "A lot of them have never been to prom and it's something I've been wanting to do for at least 10 years," Debbie Visinski, director of recreation at Arnprior Villa, told CTV Ottawa.
So, Arnprior District High School teacher Jim Anas recruited his business class to help organize the party. The students did most of the planning for the party, including organizing decorations, music and food.
Merle Thomson-Allan, 101, was a step dancer when she was young, but said she never got a chance to experience the teen rite of passage.
"I never knew what it was like at prom,” she told CTV Ottawa. “I never went to high school.”
The event had a positive impact on the students as well.
Grade 9 student Isaac Burton said he was pleased to help bring a smile to the seniors’ faces, and “see how happy they are.”
Visinski said it was a party that the seniors will be “talking about for weeks.”
With a report by CTV Ottawa's Matt Skube
