80 Days In One Night!

Okay, so you had to wait a bit longer than I originally intended…I’m sorry. Things got really busy for a while there and I’m still not exactly caught up. (And then, on the night I planned to post this, the internet connection was down.) I thought after all the “big stuff” got finished, I’d be able to relax, but, as it turns out, a lot of things got neglected while I was obsessing over the “big stuff” and now I have to do a lot of catching up (and winging it) before things will be back to normal, whatever “normal” is.

Jedidiah was very busy this past weekend, and a big discipline issue arose with some of the students I have been working with that had me crying tears in my chai on top of everything else, so I am starting to feel a little desperate for some down time.

So today I’m going to sit here in front of this computer for awhile and project myself back a couple of weekends to the Junior-Senior Banquet. Our theme this year was “Around the World in 80 Days” (in case my painfully obvious clue was still puzzling you.) The theme was kept top secret from the Seniors until they arrived at Downing Hall that night. Here is what Downing looked like before we started decorating it on midterm weekend.

And just to add to the suspense, here are some more banquet prep pictures.





And this is what we transformed the hall into (with a great deal of help from the many Junior parents who came to RVA for the weekend.) There were six distinct stages surrounding our tables:
The Men’s Club,

London (complete with Big Ben),

France (a French café with the Eiffel Tower in the background),

Egypt,

Siam, and


San Francisco (complete with a wooden cable-car that the elementary library bought from us to use as a story corner.)

The evening began with THE WALK-UP, which is where all the snazzied-up students and class sponsors parade up this long lantern-lit path with their escorts. I found this part of the evening quite painful, but presumably most of the students enjoy being treated like celebrities, as all the elementary students, a lot of the Junior-highers, and most of the staff and parents are lining this walkway, snapping photos, clapping and cheering, and calling out compliments.My escort, Jason Hall, and me.


Joey and Megan


Cory and Jamie


James and Michelle

The main attraction of the evening was the drama, which has musical numbers interspersed throughout the action. The script for the drama was written by some of our Juniors and followed Phinneas Fogg and his faithful valet, Passepartou (who was actually a female reporter for the Modern Women’s Magazine in disguise,) as they try to win a wager by circumnavigating the globe in 80 days. Because the London Museum had been robbed of some rare international artefacts at about the same time Fogg and Passepartou left on their journey, lawmen from all over the world considered Fogg the prime suspect in the robbery. In France, they were tracked by a hilarious version of Inspecteur Clousseau (of Pink Panther infamy.) Indiana Jones picked up their trail in Egypt, after they mistakenly took their refreshment from an sacred urn that was believed to contain water from the Fountain of Youth.
In Siam, they rescued Princess Tuptim from the cold-hearted King (her future husband), resulting in a hilarious scene in which Fogg fought off the King’s guards while the King sang “Kung Fu Fighting” in the background. (Bring back any memories, Liesa…the hamster in Salt Lake City, for example?) They brought Tuptim to San Francisco, where she was convinced by Annie Oakley to join Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. Annie Oakley, along with Indiana and Clousseau, followed Fogg back to London, where they finally confronted him with the help of Sherlock Holmes. In the final scene, it is discovered that the real museum robber is the butler at the men’s club, and Fog reveals that he has known Passepartou’s real identity for some time and is in love with her. The play concluded with the arrest of the butler, the winning of the wager, an enigmatic reference to the Fountain of Youth, and an all-cast choreographed curtain call to “You Like To Move It”.

The menu for the evening was designed to correspond to the scene that had just been presented, so our food took us through all five countried displayed in the set.

While we were served by our costumed Sophomores, many of the Juniors provided live background music.

The main activity for the evening was having pictures taken with friends, and we had two photo booths set up for this purpose with some experienced staff photographers available all throughout the evening
Natalie, Deborah, Sherry



The Seniors were very impressed, honoured, and gracious, and spread the report through school that it was the “best banquet ever.” I think the evening provided a lot of great memories for our students.

Unfortunately, the Junior class (and sponsors!) had to be up early the next morning to tear down the 6 months worth of work that went into the evening. It took us about 8 hours to get Downing Hall back to its original drab aspect. It was kind of depressing how quickly we destroyed all the physical evidence of the night we’d so long anticipated. I suppose I could make some spiritual illustration (in the style of Sheryl) about how much easier it is to tear down than to build up…or something like that…but, well, this post is long enough.