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Brookfield Grad Party 2011: Adventure Tourists

Departing from Gate 11, Destination: The World

‘Look Out World... Here Wii Come’ was this year’s theme for the Brookfield High School’s Graduation party. 

Upon arriving, students were greeted with lights glowing from the Eiffel Tower, Venetian gondolas and Egyptian pyramids.

Every student received their own Brookfield Bobcats passport to world adventures. These Brookfield ‘tourists’ had to earn Bobcat Bucks by mapping their own trips throughout the world. 

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By earning Bobcat dollars, students were able to buy tickets for prizes raffled throughout the night. Earning money meant traveling to destinations such as “Survivor Island” to participate in an obstacle course, play Gaga or jousting. 

Next to the island at Gate 11, the ‘flight crew’ from Bobcat Airlines offered refreshments.

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A further destination was the ‘Fortune Cookie Casino’ complete with pagodas and one magnificently large and colorfully painted dragon which was created by Bob Brooks. Brooks also did research to accurately translate and paint Chinese characters in the game room.

Jeanne Futter, the chairperson for the Fortune Cookie game room, and her husband Nigel put in "countless" hours toward the planning and creating of it. Mr. Futter said it took “thousands of hours”  to put the whole event together for the graduating seniors, as 150 to 200 people worked on the grad party. 

Some parents came in for the last week and others were involved since last October said Jeanne Futter. To break the hours down, many parents invested two evenings a week since January, she added.

There were 12 theme rooms to plan for, plus the kitchen, the outside entrance and the gift bags, which were distributed to each student at the end of their journey.

For each room, one chairperson was assigned. Four chairs are generally appointed to oversee the 15 different committees; this year Pat Burnell, Tracy Maloney, Sally Markiewicz and Clara Wiley served.

According to Wiley, “98 percent of the students attend the grad parties each year.”

There were many wonderful prizes donated from many sources. Denise Rice and Vicki Henniger had worked since February seeking donations. Some of the prizes included dorm refrigerators, golf clubs, printers, DVD players, Kayak rentals, ski lift tickets to Catamount and Mohawk Mountains, a bicycle, plus more great prizes.

In between all the adventure and prize giveaways the ‘tourists’ had to eat. They ate in the “Rainforest Cafe” a beautifully transformed room complete with a gorilla, elephant, an aquarium and delicious mango smoothies.

Another popular game was the Brookfield Blizzard Ball room, consisting of nerf snowball fights. Many nerf fighters thought it was “awesome,” “intense,” and just plain “sick.” 

The blizzard’s creator, Carolyn Onorato, themed the room after Brookfield’s snowy 2011 winter. Her husband Bob Onorato, gave out the rules and served as the referee.

Other theme rooms included: "Virtual World" with electronic games; "Here we Come Photography" for photo memories of the evening; "Bobcat Boardwalk" a game room with horse racing, twisted twister, knock-a-benny bean bag toss; and "Sky’s the Limit Nightclub" with a DJ and Karaoke.

Brookfield parents come together each year to throw a great event for the graduating seniors, and Saturday night all their hard work paid off.

By 12:30 a.m., they "were already thinking about next year’s theme,” Jeanne Futter said.

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