Project Graduation – A History

The project graduation initiave began in Maine in 1979.    The community of Oxford Hills experienced seven fatalities during their commencement season due to drugs and alcohol.  Over the next year Oxford Hills and a number of other area towns sent school and community officials to an intensive drug and alcohol training sponsored by the drug and alcohol division of Maine’s Department of Education.  The intent of the training was to arm the community and officials with appropriate instruction to implement a plan of action to begin drug and alcohol education programs in their towns.   What came out of this training was the Drug and Alcohol Team of Oxford Hills (DATOH).

DATOH’s goal was to prevent the tragedies that occurred the previous year during the commencement season.  They rented out their area fair ground and threw a huge party for the senior class on graduation night.   The seniors were offered an alternative to the traditional graduation night drinking events that had taken the lives of seven seniors the year prior.  The party was a huge success and was dubbed Project Graduation!! BY 1986, 50 states and 2 Canadian provinces were holding Project Graduation Events.

In Livingston, Project Graduation began in 1987 and is supported town wide.  Our Police Department assists with the check in process on the night of the event, leads our school bus caravan out of town with lights flashing and sirens screaming (a student favorite event), provides security for the cars parked overnight at LHS, and oversees the orderly dismissal of students when they return to LHS at 4am.  Our Board of Education supports the program by providing the busses and drivers to take the students to their secret destination, administrators to assist with the check in process, provide a nurse at the event and many hours of time to assist in making the night a success.  Over the years, generous local businesses have donated goods or services to the event and parents have donated gift cards, all to be raffled off during the night. 

The Project Graduation committee is completely volunteer.  Over the years numerous parents, from all grades, have volunteered to run the event or track funds as the treasurer.  In all it takes 60 volunteers to make sure all of the needs for the night are met.  Volunteers help with check in, act as chaperones on the busses to the venue, chaperone at the venue and make sure all students are picked up once the busses return at 4am.   This event could not run without its committed volunteers.

Currently, the majority of the fundraising for Project Graduation takes place before the students enter High School.  We recognize that once the students get to High School, there are so many other things that require fundraising, we don’t want to bring more fundraising to already busy high schoolers.  With dues from PT Council, savings accounts are opened up for each years 5^th grade class.  Any funds raised by the class through bake sales, basket events or school fundraisers, not earmarked for other things, can be put into the account for that year’s students.  As the class goes through middle school, funds are deposited into the accounts for the appropriate class. 

Senior Games is a highlight of the Senior experience at LHS.  Senior Games takes place in the spring and is a fundraiser for Project Graduation.  Essentially, Senior Games is color wars for the senior class.  The entire senior class is divided into four colors and assigned an administrator to guide them through the games and ensure that game moral stays at a very high level.  Students purchase their team shirt for $10.00 and spectators are charged $10.00 to watch the events unfold. Then the class convenes on a particular night to take part in shenanigans such as crabby volleyball, tug of war, trasketball and many other exciting non-athletic events.  Truly a memorable night!  But again, volunteers are essential to the success of this event!

Project Graduation night begins at 9:00pm, when students enter the school and are checked in and given a wristband and sinchsack for their belongings.  At 9:30pm we begin to board the busses and by 10pm we are off to our secret venue!  A highlight of the experience is our police escort out of town, the students are always excited by the lights and sirens!  By 10:30pm we arrive at our venue and the fun begins.  Past venues have been Drew University, Farleigh Dickinson University, Liberty Science Center and Dave and Busters.  Once the students arrive, they are greeted by a cornucopia of activities and delicious food available to them throughout the night.  Many students just want to soak up this last night with their high school class and watch a movie, take selfies, sign yearbooks and many other students like to take part in the all-night dance party and still other students like to make sure they visit each and every one of the inflatable experiences and many students are delighted by winning raffles throughout the night.  Often times the night is capped off by a magician or mentalist that will boggle the student’s minds.  There is something for everyone at Project Graduation!

At 3:30am the fun comes to an end and the student reload the busses and we head home.

It is events like Project Graduation that make a town come together in support of our students.  The goal of it provides our graduating high school seniors with a safe, all-night, alcohol free, drug free, tobacco free celebration. Statistics reveal that prom night and graduation night are the two riskiest times in a teenager’s life. Our goal is to send a clear message from the entire community to our youth: “We are proud of you and we want you to celebrate without drugs, alcohol and tobacco because you are important, and we want you to be safe”.