WENDELL — Not a fan of your high school prom?
The Misfit Prom, held at the Deja Brew Cafe & Pub, has you covered. Community members gather in homemade costumes each year to march from Wendell Town Hall to the pub as part of a parade leading up to the prom. The event starts today at 6:30 p.m.
“The idea behind (the prom) was we all had a high school prom and by and large, it wasn’t that great. Maybe you felt like you had to wear a certain thing, or do whatever to be normal,” said organizer Kelly Laughton. “We wanted to say now, that we are all grown, ‘Let’s throw a big party where we can where whatever we want and do it however we want to reclaim that experience.”’
Started in 2009, Laughton said the event has had many themes, but this year will be transformed into “Alice in Wendelland.” Though the wordplay was a big factor in deciding this year’s theme, Kelly also said they wanted to pick something that was open to interpretation.
“We picked ‘Alice in Wendelland’ not only because it has the characters, you can go out and buy an Alice costume, but there are also a lot of thematic things like checkers, stripes and black and red — you can go with just the visual themes. It is really cool to see how everyone interprets that,” she said.
Each year the prom’s proceeds support a local organization or charity. In the past, the prom donated to the local food bank and the Wendell Fire Department, but this year there are plans to donate the money to Swift River Elementary School for the first time.
“We wanted to give some money to the school because most of the people in town either went there or have kids that go there. I think the theme is also really great to get kids to come,” said Laughton.
Tickets are available for purchase at the Wendell Country Store for $15 as well as on the Common before the parade for the same amount. Tickets will be available at the door for $20.
“It started as an excuse to make some cool costumes and raise some money and it has really grown,” said Laughton.