The Class of 2025 is counting down the days until their graduation on May 30.
This year, many seniors have even less time left in the building due to internships starting on April 10th. Regardless of when they are leaving the building for the last time, there are lots of events planned for the senior class to send them off in style.
Senior Prom
This year’s senior prom will be held at the Cruiseport Gloucester on May 22nd from 7pm to 10pm.
Before the event, students will have the option to participate in the promenade at the PAC when family and friends greet and take photos of the prom attendees. Then, students will board coach buses at the school and return after the prom.
The prom takes a lot of planning and preparation to bring it all together. Mrs Clawson, class of ‘25 advisor, said, “The prom is probably not the toughest [senior event to plan], but it’s the most involved.”
Justin Raimo, senior class president and class officer, explained that he toured the venue last spring, around March or April. He shared, “We have been focusing on planning it within the last few months; we took a break from prom planning to do different stuff in the fall.”
The class officers all needed to plan everything out accordingly. Due to the number of students in the class of 2025, he said, “We looked up a lot of venues and a lot of [them] can’t hold as many people as we have in our grade. We had to email places and make presentations with pictures of the places we toured, then we all voted on the place that we liked best.”
Most seniors say that they are excited about going to prom this year. Luca Picano (‘25) said, “I’m pretty interested. I feel like everyone looks forward to it every year, so it’ll be fun.”
Brandon Zelch (‘25) agreed that he is looking forward to senior prom because “senior prom is apparently a lot better than junior prom.”
As for things the senior class would like to see at the prom, Ginevera Gilberti (‘25) said she hopes there would be “ice cream served at prom”, while Giavanna Cresta (‘25) said she wanted “pizza or chicken fingers.”
Cresta also said she enjoyed the prom last year with the younger DJ because the songs were more appropriate for our age and people enjoyed it more, and she hopes that “we have a younger DJ again.”
Spirit Week and Senior Week
Senior Class President Raimo said we would be doing one week before internships and one right before the seniors leave.
Senior Class president Justin Raimo said that seniors should get hyped for the planned senior events.
He said, “We have a lot of fun spirit days in store. We’re gonna do a spirit week right before internships, and then we’re gonna do another one right like during Senior Week. That should be fun,” he said.
The pre-internship senior spirit week will begin on Monday 3/31 and include themes such as pajama day, country versus country club, dressing up as Adam Sandler day , Hawaiian shirt day, and most importantly, senior t-shirt day on Friday, April 4.
Elementary School Visits
On May 27th, all seniors who went to RPS elementary schools will visit those schools and teachers. Students will wear t-shirts reflecting their respective schools, while seniors will parade through the halls of the elementary schools while being celebrated by current elementary students and seniors’ former teachers.
Hypnotist Night
The same evening, there will be an event on the stadium turf. Previously, the event was going to be a movie, but now “It’s gonna be a hypnotist with a 45 minute show, and people can watch and get hypnotized,” said Raimo.
Later in the evening, “We’re gonna do a food section, where we do, Chick-fil-A or Chipotle. And then we’re gonna do yard games.” But, he stated, “It’s all still in the planning,” he said.
Senior Sunrise
The following day, all seniors will meet before sunrise to decorate parking spots, eat breakfast, and enjoy the beauty of Reading’s sunrise.
Class Day
The final event that week will be Class Day, where seniors and juniors watch the senior slideshow in the PAC. The slideshow consists of student-provided photos, compiling memories in and out of RMHS.
Mrs. Clawson said that it is “the event that I like the most.”
“And this year we want to kind of make it really fun and invite everybody’s parents and have it be a special day with your parents and with your class to see the slideshow. It is a send off for the seniors,” she said.
Overall, Mrs. Clawson thinks, “Everyone’s really excited about the events. We try to make it as fun as possible for everybody, and we just hope that we can get as much participation as possible.”
Graduation
Graduation this year will be similar to last year’s, with 4-5 speakers and lasting around 1.5-2 hours on the football field. If it rains, it will be moved into the field house on May 30th at 6:30 p.m.
Speakers will include the valedictorian, the salutatorian, the principal, President Raimo, and the superintendent. The RMHS band will play Pomp and Circumstance, and the RMHS choir will sing the National Anthem.
Most seniors seem to be very excited about the graduation ceremony.
Abby Cayton (‘25), says she is excited to “Have my family there” because they are “proud of me.”
Some seniors fondly remember previous graduation ceremonies at RMHS. Kyle Heslin (‘25), said, “I thought it was cool. I went to last year’s because one of my friend’s brothers was graduating, and I thought it was a cool little show.”
Sophia Fournier (‘25) also attended graduation before and “loved it because I’m so excited for my own graduation.”
Mrs. Clawson, who helped plan graduation last year, said this year we will “pretty much stick to the same format because it works well. It hopefully won’t rain and will be outside. And it’ll just be a traditional graduation.”
Kyle Heslin is a little nervous about going on stage for graduation. He worries, “I might trip on the stairs when I go up. I feel like that might happen. I’m clumsy.”
But overall, this year’s senior events are shaping to be a great way to say goodbye to high school. Luca Picano summed it up nicely: “ I will be attending every event. I can’t miss it. You only live once.”
