Even though the Montgomery County High School Project Prom will be at a new location this year, many of the students are looking forward to enjoying themselves in this after-prom event.

Project Prom is an all-night, chaperoned, drug and alcohol-free event that follows the MCHS Prom. This year, it will be held at Bowlero, an entertainment facility in St. Peters that includes bowling, games and food. Project Prom is not school sponsored and receives no public funding.

“The point of Project Prom is to keep kids off the streets and not make bad choices, so we try to provide fun,” said Roxanne Sellenriek, a member of the Project Prom committee. “I think the kids who have been going really enjoy it because we give away some amazing prizes. We bribe them to come to make good choices, but we have a great group of kids that want to be involved and have fun with their friends.”

The prom is scheduled for April 18 at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds. At about 11:45 p.m., students will get on a bus to St. Peters. They will return at about 5:30 a.m.

Last year, Project Prom was held at the Main Event in Chesterfield after the Rec Plex in St. Peters hosted the event for 20 years.

Sellenriek said the students are given rules on respect and behavior before they enter Project Prom.

“The last three years I’ve been involved, the kids have been very respectful,” Sellenriek said. “We actually got a compliment from the Main Event staff, saying the kids were the most respectful kids they had in a long time. They picked up after themselves. They were really respectful to the workers. There was no arguing. I was very proud to be part of Montgomery County because our kids showed that they can be respectful. The Main Event was a lot of fun and I think the kids appreciated the new venue. Even this year, we’re going to go somewhere and hopefully it will be the same turnout.”

The other members on the Project Prom committee include Mary Pottebaum, Annette Bender, Christine Meyer, Sam Alder, Rachel Hans, Ashley Spurgeon, Julie Beck and Kaley Reagan. Sellenriek said the mission of the committee members is to help make Project Prom fun for the students.

“We have different jobs,” Sellenriek said. “We all take on different things to do. Everybody helps fundraise and we would work the football games if we have to. Everybody who was on the committee this year was on it with me last year. Some didn’t go to Project Prom and some did, so they all got to see what’s going on. Hopefully, we’ll get some new members next year because there are several of us who have senior kids and our last kids.”

The committee held several fundraisers, including one at the 4-way stop in Montgomery City under frigid conditions during the Hometown Christmas event. The group also did raffles at MCHS football and basketball games. Funds collected go towards facility rental, activities, food, transportation and attendance prizes. Last year, 98 prizes were given away.

“We raised a lot of money this year, enough to cover all of our expenses, like the buildings, the places we go to and the buses,” Sellenriek said. “Paying the drivers to drive the kids is a lot for them to have to drive in the middle of the night with high schoolers. So Mr. Schwarz donates the bus for us and we just pay a cash tip. We actually raised a lot of money and the kids are going to be excited for the prizes they get this year.”
Sellenriek said the students will have plenty of fun activities to do at their new venue this year. Prizes will be given away at 3:45 a.m.

“We’re going to have the cash cube, so we’ll draw names for them to enter the cash cube to win extra cash,” she said. “The ones who helped us work the 4-way this year will automatically get in the cash cube and they get a chance to win money. Whatever is left over, we will do drawings and we’ll have $500 in the cash cube for the kids to try to win, so that will be fun for kids to have an extra chance on that. We’ll have some activities for them to play and try to win cash at Bowlero.”