As seniors from Galileo walked into San Francisco’s City Hall on Saturday, April 28, 2012, they anticipated a night of fun and dancing. There is always excitement for prom, but this year, the excitement was heightened by the fact that is the first time Galileo had ever held their prom at City Hall. The endless fundraising of car washes, donut sales, and chocolate sales paid off once the seniors walked into City Hall impressed by the spacious area, glamorous lighting, and extravagant environment.

When the class of 2012 were freshmen, the class officers at the time heard about City Hall as a venue for prom from officers of class of 2009 and from Mr. Wing’s recommendation. Galileo had never had a prom at City Hall and could not figure out how to reserve it or when to reserve it in order to guarantee the class of 2012 a place for prom. Mr. Wing asked around and finally learned that others schools had to reserve City Hall three years in advance and place a down payment of $6,500 their freshman year to ensure that City Hall would be available for a night three years later.

Because it was the first year that Galileo hosted prom at City Hall, the senior class officers had many preparations to do, such as confirming the time, filling out forms, and hiring security guards. Senior Class Business Vice President, Kylie Lai, states, “It was pretty overwhelming- what we needed to plan and the amount of money we would need to raise to make prom possible.”

To make this prom possible, the senior class attended marathons and car washes, sold chocolate and donuts to achieve their goal of $40,000, $20,000 of which was for catering. Fundraising began during freshman year when the class of 2012 officers realized they would need an immense amount of funding to pay for City Hall. Over the years, they borrowed from the Associated Student Body (ASB) account and eventually returned the money for the down payment and had some left over from last year’s boat dance revenues.

Other than fundraising events such as car washes and donuts and chocolate sales, there was also a lot of work the officers had to do. Senior Class President, Ugonma Nwankwo, states, “We had to pick the prom theme and background for the pictures. Then we had to begin advertising for prom so that we could draw a large crowd.” At least 300 tickets needed to be sold in order for the class to break even and begin making a profit. Senior Class Business Vice President, Kylie Lai, adds, “Thankfully, we were able to sell over 350 tickets because now graduation is paid for.”

At prom, City Hall was beautifully decorated in blue lights and provided an ample amount of space for seniors to take pictures, dance, and eat desserts. City Hall was divided in three sections: the left room which was used only for Prestige’s professional pictures that attendees took while the middle had a grand staircase that many attendees took pictures on and also rested there during prom. Tables and chairs were placed for attendees to eat an assortment of desserts that was catered such as ice cream, cupcakes, fruit tarts, and a chocolate fountain with fruits. On the far right room of the main floor of City Hall, many students danced the majority of the time that prom took place, from 7PM-12AM, enjoying the music played by the DJ Kepik. The senior class officers researched Bay Area DJ’s and found DJ Kepik who was willing to DJ for prom for an acceptable price of $800.

During the middle of the night, the dance floor was cleared to one side as students eagerly waited to hear who had won prom court. The winners of prom court that night were Tobi Wong (Prom Queen) and Patrick Pereira (Prom King). Overall, despite a mess on the dance floor that left some students upset because time was wasted, students enjoyed prom. Senior Briana Wong comments, “Prom wasn’t fantastic, but still had a good time with my friends.” Senior Andy Ly also states, “Although I felt that the event lacked togetherness since everyone was pretty much scattered everywhere, it was still a very enjoyable night and I had fun with my date.”