Cedar Park & Leander - Community Impact Newspaper
Cedar Park & Leander - Community Impact Newspaper
Cedar Park & Leander - Community Impact Newspaper
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42 | May 2010 <strong>Community</strong> <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Newspaper</strong> • <strong>Cedar</strong> <strong>Park</strong>/<strong>Leander</strong> Edition<br />
Education Focus | Project Graduation<br />
By Kara Vaught<br />
One <strong>Leander</strong> Independent School District<br />
senior will celebrate the end of high<br />
school by winning an iPad; hundreds of<br />
others will go home with a television, laptop<br />
or gift card thanks to groups of parents<br />
planning Project Graduation parties.<br />
Each of the LISD high schools with a<br />
graduating class—<strong>Cedar</strong> <strong>Park</strong>, <strong>Leander</strong><br />
and Vista Ridge—offer a free, all-night<br />
Graduation<br />
Those celebrating an LISD student’s graduation<br />
will not have to drive to Austin this year to see<br />
the ceremony. Commencement 2010 will take<br />
place at the <strong>Cedar</strong> <strong>Park</strong> Center instead of the<br />
Frank Erwin Center.<br />
Each of the three high schools in the district with a<br />
<strong>Cedar</strong> <strong>Park</strong> High<br />
School<br />
Timberwolf<br />
seniors are invited<br />
to spend their graduation<br />
night at Dave<br />
& Buster’s in Austin.<br />
CPHS Project Graduation board<br />
president Cynthia LaBrake said the restaurant,<br />
which features video and arcade<br />
games, will provide an all-night buffet,<br />
soft drinks and breakfast. The party will<br />
include a DJ, hypnotist and opportunities<br />
to win prizes like an iPad, e-reader,<br />
flat screen televisions and gift cards.<br />
Parent volunteers have recruited<br />
business sponsors, hosted a holiday<br />
bazaar and sold date planner books,<br />
poinsettias and carnations to raise<br />
funds for the event, which LaBrake<br />
said will cost an estimated $30,000.<br />
The group has raised enough for the<br />
300 seniors they expect to attend. However,<br />
if more RSVP, LaBrake says they<br />
will continue raising funds to cover all<br />
who wish to come.<br />
Seniors must pre-register and turn in<br />
parent permission and student agreement<br />
forms in order to attend. No guests<br />
are allowed.<br />
The forms are available at<br />
www.cpprojectgrad10.com. The deadline<br />
for registration is May 28.<br />
Vista Ridge High School<br />
The Ranger Class of 2010 can attend<br />
“Ranger Beach” at the high school with<br />
casino games, movies, henna tattoos,<br />
picture booths, rock climbing, a video<br />
arcade, pedestal joust, bungee<br />
run, obstacle course, cash<br />
booth and a hypnotist.<br />
During the night,<br />
students will win prizes<br />
such as a mountain bike,<br />
flat-screen televisions, iPads,<br />
laptops and gift baskets.<br />
The VRHS Project Graduation committee,<br />
led by Alicia Kredt, has also<br />
employed the flamingo technique, like<br />
celebration graduation night for the seniors<br />
of 2010. These local Project Graduations<br />
are part of a nationwide movement to provide<br />
safe, alcohol- and drug-free events for<br />
graduating high school students. The first<br />
Project Graduation was in 1980 in Oxford<br />
Hills, Maine, a community that lost seven<br />
students to alcohol or drug-related incidents<br />
during the previous year’s graduation<br />
season, according to www.maine.gov.<br />
senior class will have graduation June 5.<br />
Vista Ridge High School’s ceremony will begin at<br />
9 a.m., followed by <strong>Leander</strong> High School at noon<br />
and <strong>Cedar</strong> <strong>Park</strong> High School at 3 p.m.<br />
Tickets for graduation ceremonies are not<br />
required, but parking at the center will be<br />
$5 per car.<br />
<strong>Leander</strong> High<br />
School<br />
Graduating Lions<br />
will see their school<br />
turned into a fun<br />
land filled with food,<br />
inflatables, laser tag, casino<br />
games, foosball, air hockey, video<br />
games, movies and a hypnotist.<br />
LHS Project Graduation chair Donna<br />
Ruddy said each student will leave with<br />
a prize such as a laptop, television, DVD<br />
player, Bluetooth headset or gift card.<br />
To fund the party, LHS parents<br />
partnered with local businesses, sold<br />
breakfast tacos and pizza rolls at the<br />
school throughout the year, created<br />
“blue-out” and homecoming shirts<br />
and filled residents’ lawns with flocks<br />
of plastic flamingoes, which could<br />
be sent to another home or removed<br />
for a donation. Ruddy said the volunteers’<br />
work has raised $22,000 of their<br />
$25,000 cash and donations goal.<br />
LHS has about 560 seniors; planners<br />
estimate 300 will attend the party.<br />
Students will receive registration<br />
forms in class and can return them in<br />
a box in the front office. Guests are not<br />
allowed this year.<br />
For more information, including<br />
how to donate or volunteer, visit<br />
www.lhsprojectgrad.org.<br />
<strong>Leander</strong> High School, to attract donations,<br />
in addition to selling shirts,<br />
backpacks, glasses, quilt raffle tickets<br />
and several Spirit Nights when Bush’s<br />
Chicken and Burger Central contributed<br />
a portion of proceeds. Kredt said<br />
the committee expects to meet<br />
its goal of $20,000 cash and<br />
$15,000 material donations by<br />
mid-May.<br />
About 350 seniors have<br />
attended past Project Graduations.<br />
Registration forms are available<br />
at www.vrhsprojectgraduation.com.<br />
Seniors may bring a registered guest,<br />
age 16–19 for $20.
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