Goal of Foundation’s Workshop Is to Make Grad Nights Safe

How to provide entertainment and prevent tragedies on high school graduation night will be the subject of an Oct. 22 workshop sponsored by the Grad Night Foundation.

“We hope to get more high schools interested in having graduation night activities,” said Mary Jane Kluck of Huntington Beach, a volunteer with the nonprofit organization.

Grad Nights are generally drug-and-alcohol-free, all-night parties at the high school the night of graduation. Parents plan the games, dances, booths and scenery, and community businesses usually donate prizes and other materials.

“We’ve sent out invitations (to the workshop) to public and private schools throughout Southern California,” Kluck said.

The workshop will be a complete “how-to-do-it” session, with tips for high schools already having Grad Night parties, as well as those still debating whether to have such activities, she said.

Kluck said that Grad Night parties of some sort are now held in about 40% of the county’s high schools and that the goal is to reach the rest.

Until 1985, only a handful of Orange County high schools had Grad Night parties, she said. Then Lori Warmington of Newport Beach and other parents banded together, forming the Grad Night Foundation to spread the concept to other high schools.

Kluck said the workshop, which is the first that the foundation has staged, hopes to attract the remaining high schools, as well as to provide up-to-date information to participating Grad Night schools.

The workshop will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Woodbridge Community Center, 31 Creek Road, Irvine. It is open to anyone, and the cost is $12 per person, which includes lunch. Reservations may be made by calling Kluck at (714) 536-6871 or Sue DePierro at (714) 499-4289.