Bus to the Future

The Project Graduation fundraiser is this Friday night.

I witnessed a touching tradition last year, on a June night, when Figgy and I saw a string of yellow school buses pass as we left CVS on Valley Road.

It was boiling hot and sticky. The seniors had just graduated from Montclair High School and peeled off their commencement gowns. This was Project Graduation--the safe, sober overnight party for all 500 graduates. They are taken to an undisclosed location, where they have food, fun, spend the night, have breakfast, and are driven back to Montclair.

Figgy and I spotted her good friend Dom hanging out the bus window. It brought tears to my eyes, seeing all of those kids cheering and waving, as all of us on the sidewalk waved and hollered back.

It seemed like a time-honored rite of passage, something akin to "Peyton Place," to watch the buses and the seniors pass through downtown, past the pizza parlors they loved, the balloon store, the Starbucks, the post office, the A&P. Many of them would be leaving home, all would be heading out of those high school doors. To the Ivy Leagues, state colleges, beauty school, jobs at the supermarket or garage. Many would go far from our New Jersey suburb, via car, bus, train or plane. But this was their common denominator, their high school class. Their hometown. The one where they went to kindergarten, the barber shop, the movies. The one where their families live.

Tonight, I was at a planning meeting for a big Project Graduation fundraiser this Friday night. Word is, it costs $100 per student to provide the secret event [which will be this June 26, graduation night]. I'm making small lemon cream and coconut cream tarts for the New Orleans-themed party, which will be catered with Big Easy-style food and donations from restaurants in town. I also have my eye on some of the raffle prizes--donated by Montclair merchants, including $300 worth of Bobbi Brown Makeup Studio products, gift cards from Red Eye Cafe, Sweet Home Montclair, Ruthie's Bar-B-Q and others, and even a pair of Vera Wang sunglasses. I will be buying lots of chances.

If you have senior @ MHS, I hope you'll come Friday night, too, to the Commonwealth Club @ 7 P.M.  Please visit the Facebook Event Page -- Montclair High School Project Grad 2013 - N'Orleans Dance Party Fundraiser or go to www.brownpapertickets.com/event/325448 for tickets!

Good night.