Letters: Princeton Special Needs Prom a Great Success

To the Editor:

The Princeton Special Needs Prom on May 8 was our most successful yet. With attendance at over 100, it really was a FIESTA!

We are grateful to a long list of incredible people who enable us to offer this annual event to our adult and teenaged neighbors with special needs.

Thanks to John Groeger, Stacie Ryan, and Joe Scullion of the Recreation Department for all of their hard work, and particularly heartfelt thanks to the Rec’s Program Supervisor Joe Marrolli for his extraordinary commitment to creative programming. Princeton is very lucky to have him!

Special thanks to Jaime Escarpeta and Alicia White, our photographers who once again donated their time and sent every participant home with a beautiful formal portrait. Thank you, too, to our DJ Drew Zimmerman, and to the Mexican Mariachi Grill for supplying a fabulous dinner and being so easy to work with. And huge thanks to Olivia and Courtney Browndorf for generously donating sombreros and other fun favors.

We are fortunate to have an exceptional group of busy professional women who carve out time each year to bring the prom to life: Katerina Bubnovsky, Ann Diver, Radha Iyer, Hana Oresky, and Susan Simonelli. Thank you also to event volunteers Oleg Chebotarev, Liz Cutler, John Diver, Sethu Iyer, Tom Kreutz, Katie Lynch, Joan Morelli, Abitha Ravichander, Trudy Sugiura, and Valerie Walker. We so appreciate you all!

But it is indisputably our student volunteers who make the prom such a tremendous event. Thank you to these outstanding middle, high school, and college students: Joanne Adebayo, Matthew Ams, Caroline Black, Josh Bonaparte, Olivia Browndorf, Anna Cao, Callia Cordasco, Sonia DaSilva, Chris Diver, Phoebe Elias, Amy Hauer, Barbara Kaminska, Marysia Kaminska, Caley Knox, Jack Lynch, Kaity Mattia, John Mochia, Lauren Morelli, Kathryn Murphy, Ella Quainton, Rhea Ravichander, Caroline Sasser, Grace Seward, Jessica Sheridan, Kaitlin St. Amour, Sydney Vogel, Charlotte Walker, Jimmy Walker, Eli Wasserman, and Isaac Webb.

It’s hard to express how much it means to us when our community leaders engage with our population. Thank you to Jo Butler of the Princeton Council, and to Leslie Germaine and Dick Nosker of the Recreation Commission, for joining us.

And finally, thank you to my colleagues on the PSS Board. Now in our 15th year, these dedicated volunteers continue to make special needs sports and social programming available to this wonderful community: Katerina Bubnovsky, Carmine Conti, Ann Diver, Hana Oresky, John Pecora, John Rutledge, and Barbara Young.

The next and last dance of the season is our pool party, dance, and BBQ at the Princeton Community Pool on June 5. Swimming will be from 6:30 to 7:30, followed by BBQ and dancing from 7:30 to 9:00. For more information or to register, go to princetonrecreation.com or princetonspecialsports.com.

Deborah Martin Norcross
Co-President, Princeton Special Sports

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