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Lake Forest teens to host dance for senior citizens
The Lake Forest High School dance for local senior citizens had a 1940s masquerade party theme last year. This year's dance at Dickinson Hall in Lake Forest will be Sunday. | Mark Ukena - for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 8, 2013 8:22AM
LAKE FOREST — Student council members at Lake Forest High School spend an enormous amount of energy planning prom for their classmates during their junior year. And yet, they still make it a priority every year to organize and run a dance for local senior citizens at Dickinson Hall.
This year is no exception.
“The planning process has been going on for a while,” said Kate Arnson, a junior who is coordinating the dance with classmates Bryan Africk and Therese Lane.
Organizers expect nearly 100 seniors to attend the dance from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday at Dickinson Hall, 100 E. Old Mill Road, Lake Forest. The afternoon will include dancing, food, and conversation. Students will provide entertainment, featuring a performance by the high school jazz band.
“I’m excited for it,” Arnson said of the culmination of several months’ work.
So is Marjorie Triplett, who wouldn’t miss the dance for anything.
“We’re all signed up,” she said. Triplett planned the date with her husband, Hugh.
This year’s dance marks the third time the Lake Forest couple will spend a spring Sunday afternoon with local high school students at the senior dance.
“They wait on you hand and foot. They want you to get up and dance,” Triplett said. “They’re so cute. They couldn’t have been nicer.”
Marla Schachtel, director of Dickinson Hall, said the music, dancing and decorations take seniors back to another time and place.
“It is a totally rejuvenating day,” Schachtel said. “Listening to music and being able to get up and dance is something they haven’t done for years.”
Just having teens in the room brings energy to Dickinson Hall, she added.
“It gives seniors the chance to sort of feel like a kid again,” Schachtel said.
The annual event brings out the best in the students, junior class advisor Jen Knight said. She speaks with pride of the growing tradition.
“We have consistently had over 70 students participate as well as the student groups that perform,” she said. “I have been even more proud, however, of the genuine excitement and happiness I see in our students over the course of the afternoon. It’s a wonderful opportunity for students to give back to the community.”
Reservations are required and can be made by calling Dickinson Hall at (847)234-2209.
