Promenade 2010

B-PC Promenade
(4/10/10)

A few weeks back, I was asked to announce the B-PC High School Promenade. Over the last few years, I have been selected as the "celebrity" announcer at various events at Bushnell-Prairie City High School (Powder Puff, Meet the Spartans, and now Promenade). I enjoy doing these things, because it's fun to work with the kids, parents, and teachers at the school.

I always get nervous before public speaking engagements. It's one of those things, where it is really nerve wracking right beforehand, but once it is done, it is a big sigh of relief. Personally, I think that is what is the most fun about it. I hate the nerves, but I love the gratification afterwards.

Before heading to the high school, I took a detour over to my favorite chain of gas stations, Casey's, to pick up a bottle of water. I figured with reading as much as I would be, water would be a necessity.

Several people were already on hand when I pulled into the parking lot. As I arrived inside, I wandered into the gym, and found Kenny Van Tine. His wife, Rhonda, was the person who asked me to announce the promenade. After finding Rhonda, she gave me a brief tutorial on how the promenade was going to be run. Parts seemed confusing at the time, but everything went pretty smoothly.

As more and more people packed the bleachers in the high school gymnasium, the more nervous I got. My water bottle was nearly empty. As 5:15 (the start of promenade) approached, I felt more at ease, yet more uneasy.

I read over my book for the prom court. It was three pages of biographies on each member of the 10-student court. Fortunately, there weren't too many hard names to pronounce, except for Rasheim Singh, the father of Bahader Singh. By the way, it is (Rah-sheem and Buh-Hod-der).

At 5:15, after a few minutes of music played, I began announcing the couples for the 2010 B-PC Promenade. Ironically, we started with a fellow "Beau", in Beau Huffman. B-PC High School has one of the nicest gymnasiums around. I was standing in the tunnel (south side of the gym), where the couples came down from the locker rooms (which are above and behind the gym). Each couple wrote their names down on the note card, that was given to the state police officer with me inside the tunnel. She was there to make sure nothing got out of hand.

Everything went smoothly with the couples, though there were two girls without an escort. They asked me to say, "Name is 'NOT' being escorted by name", so it gave the audience a little chuckle.

The only misprounciation I had was misreading one of the cards, and calling Riley Craver, Riley Craven. I should have known, but I was able to save face and correct myself. The microphone also kept going out at times. They had given me an extra battery, but I waited.

The timing was perfect, except for the very end. The last couple was a little confused, so I had to say, "this concludes our couples, the prom court will be announced next."

Prom court was interesting, with three pages of bio's to read. There was a gap between the final couple and the court, since they were still taking pictures at the various points in the gym. Once we got underway, I started announcing the first prom court couple. A few sentences in, the mic kept cutting in and out. I paused, and changed out batteries, thinking this would be a fix. Unfortunately, this was not a fix, as the cutting out continued throughout the bio reading.

For the prom court, everything was scripted out, so it was easy to just read. However, when we got to the end, I had to wing it a little bit. The "crowners" were last year's Queen Tamra Benge, along with Kyle Hummel (who was on court, though, not King). Since I had to ad-lib a little bit, I got tongue-tied, and announced Kyle Hummer, instead of Hummel. I was quick to add Hummel in there, but several in attendance, yelled out, HUMMER, in the stands. Woops!

Our 2010 Prom King and Queen was Bahader Singh and Taylor Elder. Afterwards, I greeted some familiar faces, and headed out of town. The tie was really crampin my style. For the evening, I wore a pair of lightly pin-striped black pants, with a white shirt, and black and silver tie. I cannot tie a tie, so I opted for one that was already tied in my closet. I keep both on hand.