If it takes a village to raise a child — it takes a community to put on an after-prom.

Bowling Green High School hosted its first after-prom event since the pandemic on Saturday. It was organized by Mindy Barnhart, Michalene Cookson, Beth Utz, Deb Dean, Dawn Scheele, Lan Li, Ashley Rader, Jen Gottschalk and Mou Mallik, who are all parents of BGHS juniors.

Going into the 2022-23 school year, Mindy Barnhart, mother of BGHS junior Katelyn Barnhart, had no idea she would be part of the return of the after-prom event until her daughter was named a junior class officer.

“Basically, my daughter came home, handed me a packet, and said, ‘Mom, I am a junior class officer; you are in charge of planning after-prom.” I did not realize how that worked, but I embraced it, saying, ‘Let’s do this.’”

From there, the parents of the junior class officers got to work to bring an event that hadn’t occurred for four years.

The theme was “Catch Me at the Carnival.” (supplied photo)

This is when they learned that it would take a community to get this off the ground, Barnhart said.

“I do not know if people realize this because I did not, but the committee has to raise all the money. The school does not help us; it is all on the six parents. We made donation letters, and all donations and even the letters have to go through the school,” Barnhart said.

“All six of us dropped off close to 200 donation letters to local businesses, and the community was amazing. I wasn’t sure of the support we would get, but we raised close to $10,000.”

In years past, the after-prom was always held at the Perry Field House on the Bowling Green State University campus. This was changed to the high school, allowing the committee to use more money, about $2,000, toward activities.

“I had to make a few waves, which I did not mind doing,” Barnhart said. “I was told the after-prom was hosted at the BGSU field house for the past 20 years, but we decided to bring it back to the high school.”

With all that money raised and a place to host the event, the next step was planning the prizes and activities. They would all be completely free for the students to participate in, and included inflatables, an ice cream bar and a 20-foot rock wall.

Barnhart plans to help out with planning after-prom next year as her daughter will be a senior, and she hopes the community members will be as supportive as they were this year.

“Mark your calendars. On April 27, 2024, I am planning on helping out. I already wanted to put deposits down; it was a huge undertaking. I do not think people realize how early this starts because if you do not start now, you will not get what you want at the event.”