Palmer High recycled prom could use your help

PALMER — Talking to Yvonne Marty about her plans for Palmer High School’s prom this year, at times it can start to sound a little crazy.

“I just kind of drive around and look in people’s garbage,” she said of where she’s finding raw materials for a lot of the decorations.

But what she comes up with — coral-themed table decorations, large origami clamshells, Styrofoam anemones, wavy plastic starfish and plastic-bag seaweed — is pretty impressive.

“I’m in for cheap, man, but I don’t want it to be super-cheesy,” she said.

There is clearly a method to her madness. By decorating the prom with materials she finds, Marty hopes she can pass the savings along to the kids.

“It’s 50 bucks a kid, not a couple, per kid!” she said of the cost to attend the prom.

Maybe if she saves enough money, she can cut that in half.

A prom ticket is just one of many things high school kids pay for these days. There’s also a $150 activity fee and $50 for a yearbook. It’s just too much, she said.

Marty, a former physical education and health teacher, got into the school dance planning game during homecoming this year, which she decorated for on short notice and on a shoestring budget. She saved the school so much money, she was asked to do prom.

Her stipulation — they have to do it on the cheap and in the school gym.

Oddly enough, that part about using the gym was kind of a tough sell. Proms used to be in the gyms by default. But that hasn’t been the case for years.

Eventually, the school went for it. The gym teachers and coaches didn’t like the idea, but prom is at the end of the year, Marty reasoned. There aren’t sports that are going to be displaced.

The theme ended up being an underwater recycled prom. Recycling, of course, is trendy these days — but only sort of.

“It’s cool to say you recycle, but to actually do it? It’s a whole different ball game,” Marty said.

And what she is doing is several steps above just dropping stuff into the various chutes at the recycling center. She’s got to clean it out and cut it up and paste it together. But first she’s got to find it all.

The first thing she did was scour Palmer High for stuff people didn’t need.

“Every year people put crap away that they didn’t use. But every teacher has it in a different spot,” she said.

Then she started hitting up local businesses. A local aluminum welder gets all his metal shipped to him in green plastic sheeting — perfect. A local auto body shop handed over a bunch of cardboard. Also perfect.

“Their cardboard is super thick because it’s got glass and stuff in it,” she said.

She said unlike the big chain stores — which will make you fill out pages and pages of applications just to wait six months for a rejection letter — the local stores have been awesome partners. Every one of them gets hit up for school fundraisers on a constant basis, yet they are all still very friendly, welcoming and a great source for recycled material, she said.

“That’s the coolest thing, seeing how the local businesses are so cool,” Marty said.

In the end, she hopes to have the whole gym decorated with waves above the kids and water fountains spouting out of giant papier maché whale, a giant sunken ship and a throne fit for Neptune.

She also could use some help. Every other week, about a half dozen kids from Palmer High lend a hand. She could use more, along with some more parents, too. If you have time or things you think might work for decorations, email her at smartys@mtaonline.net

Prom isn’t until April 2013, but a job like this takes time to get done and it’s a good idea to start early.

“Everyone’s saying it’s too early, but I’m freaking out,” she said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.