Senior Ball at Camerado Springs Middle School

EDITOR:

So often our local newspaper contains discouraging articles about the crime and destruction of property caused by the youth in our county. I would like to call attention to, and publicly thank, a very special group of students at Camerado Springs Middle School in Cameron Park. They are known as Mrs. Fong’s Leadership class, and have been carefully selected based upon their character, grades, hard work, and leadership qualities. These kids not only help in planning the assemblies, student dances, fundraisers, and support for our troops overseas, they organize, decorate, and serve at a “Senior Ball” for the community.

My husband and I attended the western themed dinner-dance on Friday, Nov. 2, along with 70 other senior citizens. We were met in the school parking lot by attendants who directed us to our parking space. Then, a young man greeted us with a warm smile and escorted us across campus to the gym. Inside, we were greeted by other students (all decked out in western attire) who walked us to our table and took drink orders of lemonade and water. While some attendees were listening to the western music, many others were out on the dance floor with partners or learning a line dance from the excellent instructor. The next activity was a delicious buffet of barbequed hamburgers, turkey burgers, macaroni salad, potato salad, fruit salad, and all the trimmings. Each table had at least two servers who kept checking on the guests, cleared their plates when they were finished, and made sure their glasses were full. Next came dessert consisting of apple or pumpkin pie with whipped cream and coffee. This was served at the table and cleared when we were finished. At one point in the evening, the guests filled out a game sheet with questions about actors, actresses, and TV shows from our era, with prizes being awarded to the top three scorers. The students had made most of the decorations, decorated the gym, set the tables, organized the music and dancing, helped make, serve and cook the food, and even offered to take orders from the guests if they were unable to walk through the buffet line. When the evening ended, the students stayed behind and cleaned up the whole gym. This was a very long day, as they finished the final preparations right after school and stayed until the clean up was finished.

Every young person in that class was dressed for the occasion, kind, helpful, friendly, and made sure that all the seniors had a wonderful time. What an amazing evening these young people and their teacher, Mrs. Fong, provided for the seniors of our community. We were very encouraged to see these students in action and to know that they could be our future leaders. Keep up the good work and thank you from all who attended.

MICKEY SIZEMORE
Shingle Springs