Prom Angels

Prom Angels
Four years ago, the Pembroke Knights of Columbus and Rockland-Hanson Rotary Club's special needs prom was just an idea — a way of giving local high schoolers with disabilities a chance to mix and mingle with their peers. A year later, in its second year, the prom drew more than 400 people, including families and prom-goers ages 16 to 61. Now, members of the Pembroke and Rockland Knights of Columbus and the Rockland-Hanson Rotary Club are banding together to form their own nonprofit group — the Prom Angels Foundation — to make the prom bigger than ever, bring proms to other local towns and build new programs for young adults such as golf and basketball leagues. Because the prom has started growing so large in size now, we created the Prom Angels Foundation, Prom Angels is allowing us to grow the prom out even larger. In 2009, the Pembroke Knights of Columbus was recognized with both state and international community awards — picked from more than 13,000 councils for their efforts with the prom. Now councils across the United States, Europe and Canada are following our lead and doing special needs proms, Pembroke Knight and co-founder of Prom Angels. As a parent of two special needs children, McKenna has seen a need for events such as the prom. We have to get ahead of the curve, because there's a need for it. One of the biggest things I'm realizing is, once my children are out of high school at the age of 22, there are very little social activities for these young adults to do. We are hoping to build on that community partnership as they expand the program and it is going to make the difference, to get some of these larger players involved and to make this their cause.