Project Graduation is ready for big Friday Night bash

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — Glen Ridge High School seniors will be attending Project Graduation 2017 tomorrow night, Friday, June 23. The all-night event takes place following graduation.

The evening will start with a dinner/dance at the Glen Ridge Country Club at 9 p.m. That will last until 11:30 p.m. At midnight, the real fun begins with a tent party at Richard and Ginny Moriarty’s residence on Ridgewood Road. This is the third time the Moriarty’s have hosted the party. The chairwomen for the drug-and-alcohol-free evening are Tania Liddy and Lana Koppel.

Each year, graduating seniors vote on a theme for the tent party and this year it will be “Toy Story,” the 1995, animated Disney movie. Following the tent party there will be a pool party, from 3 to 5 a.m., at the home of Rich and Angela Zazzu, on Forest Avenue. If the past is any indication, breakfast at the Nevada Diner will follow.

“Michael Blue did the design,” Koppel said of the “Toy Story” tent show. “It’s incredible. You almost feel miniature where everything is gigantic. They created all the characters from the movie.”

The tent show will have 15 different games, competition for prizes and inflatables. Everything that was not theme-specific was rented.

“I have a son who is graduating,” Koppel said. “It is a very positive theme and they have good memories of the movie growing up.”

This is the first time Koppel has been involved with project graduation. She has been responsible for fundraising.

“We have no final number yet but we raised close to $40,000,” she said. “Everything will cost about $30,000.”

The remaining funds will be divided between the Project Graduation 2018 and the schools.

One hundred and forty-three students will be graduating and 40 of their parents have been involved with Project Graduation.

“There’s no way you would do this without a kid graduating,” Koppel said.

Blue, who designed the characters and set for tent show, is a clothing designer who works for Ralph Lauren. Blue also designs the environments in which the clothing is displayed.

“When you show him something, it has to look like the real thing,” Blue said.

Blue started on the project in September and got his inspiration at a yard sale. Theater props were for sale.

“There were giant sunflowers and a lightbulb went off,” he said.

His idea was an exaggeration of elements of “Toy Story.”

“We did a lot of stuff with cardboard,” he said. “It’s recyclable.”

Any Glen Ridge resident wanting to get a sneak peek of the “Toy Story” tent party may do so between 7 and 9:30 p.m. on Friday, June 23. This year marks the 56th annual Project Graduation.