Party All Night Long is Gearing Up For Another Successful Year

Just a few hours after the conclusion of the for the Class of 2011, the new graduates made their way to the O’Donnell Middle School for (PANL), the annual alcohol-free and drug-free post-graduation bash.

The entered the middle school to see it transformed into an airport, complete with a luggage carousel, an arrival and departure board, manikins dressed as stewardesses and TSA airport security agents, and even a fake metal detector (although it sure fooled a lot of people entering the party).

Inside there were Vegas-style games, a live DJ, tattoo artists (they were temporary tattoos), caricaturists, a hypnotist, inflatable play structures, and an endless array of late night snacks.

“I had so much fun at PANL! Everyone involved tried to make it as fun for us as possible and they succeeded. My favorite part was the hypnotist [Jim Spinnato]; he needs to be there every year,” Class of 2011 graduate Evelyn Falkof wrote in an email.

Party All Night Long is the annual all-night graduation party for the Stoughton High graduating class and will be back this June for the Class of 2012. It takes place following graduation, Thursday, June 7 at 11 p.m. and ends Friday, June 8 at 5 a.m.

The party, now in its 13th year, is alcohol-free and provides a fun, yet safe (and supervised) venue for the graduates to celebrate.

“It’s a great right of passage,” Marcy Zuk said.

“It’s the last time to say good-bye,” Charlene LaFerriere added.

Zuk and LaFerriere head the PANL Steering Committee. PANL is made possible by the hundreds and hundreds of man-hours that go into planning the event, by the volunteers who chaperone that night and by the charitable donations from the community.

Both Zuk and LaFerriere say the community support shown over the years has been “awesome.”

“We couldn’t do it without community support,” Zuk said.

LaFerriere, pointing to two pages of volunteers and donors from last year’s PANL event, said the support is “overwhelming.”

The PANL steering committee is again looking for this community support.

According to the PANL webpage on the Stoughton Booster’s website:

A party of this kind takes much planning and resources. The all-volunteer organizing committee puts everything together throughout the year and raises funds to make it possible.

PANL is not subsidized in any way by the Stoughton Public School system and we need to raise $15,000 to cover the decorations, entertainment and facilities expenses as well as any ancillary costs for items we are not able to receive through donations.

Students are charged a nominal fee to attend and all fundraising helps keep the ticket price affordable to all.

PANL holds various fundraisers throughout the year, like a night at the where 20% of the dining bill goes towards PANL and a car wash in the spring.

The big fundraising event is the 2nd annual , held March 16, 2012 at Club Luiz De Camoes on Porter St. in Stoughton (7:30 p.m. until 11:30 p.m.)

There will be live music by "Beware of Doug," food, drinks, a silent auction and raffles.

A $100 cash raffle (which includes 1 ticket to the event) can result in winning a grand prize of $3,000.

Regular tickets are $20 per person.

In addition to making raffle prize donations or monetary donations to help underwrite the cost of the party, PANL is always looking for volunteers. Zuk and LaFerriere said they would like to have parents of younger students get involved, as the majority of the steering committee will have seniors at SHS next year.

According to the PANL webpage, there are no shortage of ways to volunteer. PANL needs:

• Chaperones for the party (parents of underclassmen only or community members – shifts are between 10 a.m. through 6 a.m.)

• Set-Up Team on June 6 in the late afternoon to help start the transformation of the Middle School

• Decorations Team on June 7 to put up the decorations (shifts between 12 p.m. and 9 p.m.)

• Clean Up Crew on June 8 from 3 a.m. – 6 a.m. (senior parents can assist here)

The theme of each year’s event is kept secret but sponsors of PANL are given a sneak peak of the party at 9:30 p.m., before the doors open for the graduates at 11 p.m. Once the graduates are in the building, they cannot leave.  

PANL, which has been a hit for the past 12 years, figures to be this year as well.

“PANL was an opportunity to celebrate all of our accomplishments over the past four years together for the last time. Most of us have gone to school together for at least eight years and to end it with graduation and a big party to celebrate it was unbelievable. I wish I could go back to it again!” Molly Zuk, a graduate of the Class of 2011, wrote in an email.  

“I thought that PANL was so much fun! I wish that I could go every year. It was a memorable way to spend our last night together as a class,” Kellie Carmichael, Class of 2010, wrote in an email.

Laura Purcell, Class of 2010, added: “I thought that Party All Night Long was the best part of graduation week. We had a place where all of us could be together for the last time. It was so much fun, and I wish I could relive that night over and over again! I can't wait until I'm old enough to work it myself!”  

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Want to help out? Call Marcy Zuk at 781-344-5060 or Charlene LaFerriere at 781-341-1524 or email StoughtonPANL@gmail.com. To purchase March Madness Fundraiser Tickets, contact Noralee Curtis at 781-341-4232 or Noralee@norwoodlight.com.

The PANL Steering Committee includes: Louise Brauneis ~ Michelle Carmichael ~ Lauren  Connelly ~ Barbara Corrigan ~ Rose Eckler ~ Tracy Ellertson ~ Ellen Evangelista ~Pauline Fennessy ~ Debbie Hickey ~ Charlene LaFerriere ~ Jessica Quattrucci ~ Anna Sousa ~ Elizabeth Turner ~ Marcy Zuk