2020 graduates to finally receive a prom

“No matter what I have to do, I am going to give these kids a senior prom even if I had to do it in my own backyard.”

That was what Jina LaFary, of Jina LaFary Photography, told her business partner Keisha Amburgey, of Elegant Moments by Keisha.

Together, the duo owns and operate Studio 206, a photography studio in London.

“My daughter is a 2020 graduate, and me having first-hand experience with her, seeing how COVID-19 wrecked the last part of her senior year, it really hit home with me that the kids had missed out on so much,” said LaFary.

LaFary said when the pandemic hit, the 2020 seniors missed out on so many opportunities and milestones, like prom, and in return, they were made promises by different members of the community.

As a part of her photography business, LaFary has a senior representative group each year. The group consists of eight or nine girls who she works with throughout the year. Even throughout the end of the 2019-2020 school year, LaFary continued to work with the girls developing a strong bond with them.

Of those in the group, she said a majority had already purchased their prom dresses, including her daughter. She pitched the idea to go ahead and have the girls get dressed up so that they could take pictures in their dresses.

LaFary recalled that throughout the shoots, the common theme was that the girls kept saying how they felt forgotten.

“It was just so sad to witness,” said LaFary.

It was at that point that LaFary decided no matter what happened, she was going to provide the 2020 graduates with a prom.

During the midst of the pandemic, many businesses had promised the seniors that they were going to receive their prom, but many were so scared of COVID, that it never seemed to happen, said LaFary.

When LaFary and Amburgey started planning the prom, she said they were hesitant to get other businesses involved until they had a solid foundation because they didn’t want the prom to be another let down for the graduates.

Now that COVID restrictions have been lifted for the most part, she said businesses are starting to reach out wanting to get involved.

“We wanted to make sure that we could get the right location, and the right people to help before we actually launched it,” said LaFary.

When LaFary contacted the Arena about renting it as the venue for the prom, she was informed that the Arena could host over 5,000 people, far more than the number of 2020 graduates in the tri-county area.

“I call it the snowball effect,” said LaFary. “When we were just talking, when we were just in the planning phase, I had said let’s just do the tri-county area. We were thinking Laurel, Knox, and Whitley.”

Once she realized how many the venue could accommodate, she, in conjunction with a team of others, decided to open the invitation to 2020 graduates throughout the 13th region.

Inviting so many people, however, was cause for concern.

First, LaFary said they were worried about cost. Together, LaFary and others, decided to charge the same ticket price as the schools would normally charge to be able to cover the cost of the DJ, Arena and donations.

“We have had some amazing, amazing sponsors step up and say, ‘Listen, we don’t want the class of 2020, or any 2020 graduate to even pay to get into the event,’” said LaFary.

Through sponsors, the cost of renting the arena has been covered.

“That is already done. There are no if, ands, or buts about it. It is already booked and ready to be paid for by several sponsors,” said LaFary.

The second concern was security.

LaFary said that discussion started with “If we can just let these kids have a prom night, then surely to goodness we can monitor them,” but when she reached out to the Arena to ask about security options, they decided to have security the same way the Arena would if it were a concert.

In addition to security offered by the Arena, the Kentucky National Guard reached out to ask how they could help, and they volunteered to work as security and help decorate and clean up for the event.

“I cannot give enough kudos to the Kentucky National Guard because they reached out to us, we didn’t reach out to them, to say ‘What can we do to make this happen because we want to show that we support this?’,” said LaFary.

Because of support from the community, worries about cost and security have been handled. In fact, anonymous donors who paid the cost of renting the Arena were able to relieve so much of the worry, that tickets will now be made available for free to 2020 graduates from the 13th region how show proof of graduation either in the form of a diploma or letter from their school.

Guests, who are not 2020 graduates, will be required to pay a ticket fee, but the cost for those tickets has not been set.

Graduates will be able to invite a guest as long as that person is within the ages 17 to 25 years old.

Tickets will be available through the Corbin Arena. LaFary said they are trying to set up a presale for the plus one tickets.

They are unsure how they will be doing the graduate tickets, but they are trying to create a mechanism or system to get the tickets distributed out in an efficient way. It is still in the planning phase, said LaFary.

LaFary said the cost of the entire event is not yet covered as they will still be purchasing items, such as food and decorations.

She encourages parents, community members, businesses or organizations whom would like to contribute to reach out to herself or Studio 206.

LaFary has created a GoFundMe page (https://gofund.me/3f8e2e8f) where individuals can provide financial support for the event.

The prom is scheduled from 8 p.m. to 12 p.m. on July 24 at the Arena in Corbin. The theme for the prom is “The Roaring 20’s.” For more information about the event or tickets, contact LaFary at 606-260-7522 or info@jinalafary.com or Amburgey at 606-309-1061 or elegantmomentsbykeisha@hotmail.com.