As Panorama High School has shortened its prom festivities to only a Grand March this year, several parents have formed a grassroots effort to still give students a night to remember.

Steph Reinhart has three children who were planning on attending the school prom, and after the school administrators announced the event’s changes due to COVID-19, she and some other parents decided to plan an unofficial prom. It will be at The Port restaurant in Panora on Saturday, June 27th following the grand march, happening at 6 p.m. in the downtown square. The prom will be free for juniors and seniors and their dates, and will include dinner and dancing as well as a live band which the restaurant had previously booked.

In order to make this non-school sponsored event possible, the organizers are fundraising toward a $3,000 goal with a GoFundMe page. Reinhart hopes the community can come through to support this event, “I mean, our community has always been really great about being supportive, and I just think this is like the one final event that we can give our kids. This has been a crazy year and they have already lost a lot and it’s been really hard, hard for parents too., Aand so I think to be able to come together on this one night and give them a little piece of normalcy and let them have that prom is really special.”

Reinhart adds that the Panora Hometown Foods has donated an ice cream bar for prom as well. Information on how to donate can be found here.