To the Editor:

I am writing to thank everyone who made the fifth Princeton Special Needs Prom such a success.

Since 2008, the Princeton Recreation Department and Princeton Special Sports have partnered to host monthly dances, culminating in our Prom, for the teenaged and young adult members of our special needs community. Through these dances and other events, our neighbors with special needs have had multiple opportunities to socialize with existing friends, and make new ones, in a comfortable environment.

We could not do it without a long list of very special people.

First and foremost, thank you to Ben Stentz and all of the staff at the Recreation Department for their unwavering support of special needs programming. Joe Marrolli, the new program supervisor, is an invaluable addition to our team. Special thanks to Joe Scullion, the Recreation Department’s maintenance foreman, who solved the inevitable last minute emergency by creating replacement lighting out of discarded equipment in under 24 hours. You saved the evening, Joe.

Thank you to Jaime Escarpeta, our talented photographer who once again donated his time and provided every participant with a professional formal photograph right on site. Thank you, too, to McCaffrey’s for supplying an elegant and delicious dinner. And of course, Prom wouldn’t be Prom without our terrific DJ, Drew Zimmerman.

Thank you also to our adult volunteers who helped set up, run, and clean after the prom: Katerina Bubnovsky, Ann Diver, Radha Iyer, Sethu Iyer, Joe Marrolli, Jackie Mckelvie, Erroll Mckelvie, Hana Oresky, Evelyn Rutledge, Angela Siso, Ben Stentz, Trudy Sugiura, and Yasuo Sugiura.

We are especially grateful for our student volunteers: Emma Crain, Catherine Curran-Groome, Charlie Doran, Tom Doran, Rhea Kulkani, Alexus McKelvie, Milosh Popovic, Leah Roemer, Jack Ruddy, Severine Stier, Adam Straus-Goldfarb, Sarah Trigg, and Sydney Watts.

Thank you to Dick Nosker, Joanne Rogers, and Tom Zucoski of the Joint Recreation Board; to Kevin Wilkes from Borough Council; and to Evan Moorhead and Stacie Ryan of the recreation department, for coming. It meant a lot to our community.

And finally, thank you to my fellow trustees, still and always the most dedicated group of volunteers I know: Carmine Conti, Ann Diver, Hana Oresky, John Pecora, John Rutledge, and Barb Young.

The next and last dance of this school year is our outdoor dance and BBQ at the new Community Park Pool complex on June 1. For more information, go to www.princetonrecreation.com or www.princetonspecialsports.com.

Deborah Martin Norcross

Princeton Special Sports