Parents get ready for Project Graduation 2023

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — Project Graduation 2023, the generation-spanning June party produced by parents of graduating Glen Ridge High School seniors will be Friday, June 17.
As in every year, GRHS seniors choose a theme for their bash and this time the animated movie “Rio” was selected.

The party is at the home of a graduating senior’s parents and this past weekend, at 89 Sherman Ave., where 137 graduates are expected following a dinner/dance at the Glen Ridge Country Club, packages of plastic tropical flowers were everywhere while deep in the backyard someone’s father trimmed overhead branches to permit the hand-built attractions to fit.

“A lot of great ideas for the party came from the movie,” said Liza Grecco, a co-chair of the event.
The buildup began last May and about $30,000 was collected to see it through with the GRHS Home and School Association receiving unused funds.

“We had a cap,” said Kimberly Amici, the other co-chair. “It was the average of what’s been spent over the last few years. We try to keep it to the same experience.”

To collect the money, there were fundraisers which included a plant sale, golf outing, all-girl “powder puff” football game and the annual rubber duck race down the rapids of Toney’s Brook.
A survey to find willing parents went out last year and Amici said about 50 moms and dads became involved and worked on about a dozen committees. Some parents were old hands at the planning and construction that goes into a Project Graduation having done it before when another offspring graduated. According to Amici, the tradition is in its 62nd year.

“There are some parents who went through it themselves when they graduated and they’re going through it again now,” she said. “But I think the actual house tradition might be a good 30 years.”
Amici and Grecco provided little information about what amusements will be offered, preserving the surprise factor, but there will be memory games, “blind” portrait drawing and, staying in the tropics, relay races with fruit on the contestants’ heads. To enter “Rio,” students will pass through a jungle/tunnel built by Greco’s husband, Jim Kotronis.

But the big attraction is a parade float, designed by Alecia Walton, on a flatbed and towed by a truck. The float will be transported down Ridgewood Avenue, June 16, starting on Lincoln Street, at 11:45, and pass the high school. It will then proceed to Linden Avenue, Central, Ridgewood Avenue and Forest Avenue schools. It will visit Hurrell Field while seniors practice commencement exercises and arrive at 89 Sherman Ave., to become a karaoke stage.

The overall layout design for the party came from Walton, a professional set designer.
“We have a couple of fathers helping out,” Amici said, “but mostly it’s motivated mothers.”
With many of the parents having backgrounds suitable to producing a Project Graduation, for instance, Amici is an architect and Kotronis is a designer in construction, Grecco, an IT project manager, said there were not any challenges, particularly, in putting it all together.

“We had to be more cost-conscious with inflation,” she said.
Grecco also said she did not know if there was a feeling of competition with previous Project Graduations, but she did feel inspired by them.

“There’s been a lot of support from those previous years,” she said. “The experience is always around.”
Her co-chair, she said, is well organized and has a lot of great ideas.
“Kim and I will be around to help next year with our lessons learned,” Grecco said.
Following the Rio adventure, the graduates will attend a pool party with breakfast and finally a trip to Eagle Rock for the sunrise.

On Saturday, June 18, residents will be allowed to visit 89 Sherman Ave. to see the sights and play the games. Breaking the Rio set is the responsibility of parents for next year’s Project Graduation. The lumber and lighting will be removed for safe-keeping for next year.