Napa Grad Nite deemed a huge success with dramatic rise in attendance

Seniors from six local high schools were treated to eight hours of fun, games and entertainment all in a safe and supervised environment on the campus of Napa Valley College.

“The numbers surpassed all of our expectations” said Kelly Wallace, President of Project Graduation Inc., the 501(c)3 non-profit founded to organize and run the event each year “and our efforts this year with outreach have obviously worked. In addition to more in-person outreach at individual high school campuses we put resources into online efforts by ramping up our social media efforts in addition to running online ads in the run up to the event.”

Wallace admits that it takes more effort to reach both parents and students these days with the multitude of outlets both print and digital that are available. He added that all of their efforts in promoting the event had resulted in a total attendance of 609 students up from 450 in 2014.

Attendees were able to enjoy plenty of fun activities on the Napa Valley College campus with the Karaoke, Casino, Inflatable games and dance-floor proving particularly popular. In the early hours of Friday morning the ever popular and engaging hypnotist show provided plenty of laughs as graduates volunteered to be part of the spectacle for their classmates.

One of the features of the 2015 event was the availability of early-bird tickets in the run up to the night. “We tried to offer people an incentive to buy their tickets ahead of time” said Grant Bennion, who runs ticketing and check-in for Napa Grad Nite “starting in February we offered $30 tickets and the price rose $5 each month with $45 tickets available until May 31st. We’re hoping that more people will take advantage of these lower prices for our 2016 event which will go on sale in early 2016”

“Over 100 volunteers worked the event” continued Wallace “The volunteers come from various facets of the Napa community and without them Napa Grad Nite couldn’t happen”

“The event was heavily subsidized by donations from the community” says Wallace, “and the actual cost of food, prizes, entertainment and operations cost well in excess of $100 per participant. The following helped significantly with our costs this year Community Projects, Kiwanis Club of Napa Foundation, Napa Valley Vintner’s, Patrick Savage Memorial, Billco’s Billiards & Darts, Cole’s Chop House, Gary Lieberstein (District Attorney of Napa County), Napa Valley Education Foundation, Altamura Enterprises, and Napa Valley Marathon and we, and the attendees are very grateful for their support”

About Napa Grad Nite - Napa Grad Nite is an annual event created by Project Graduation Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit. Napa Grad Nite is run entirely by community volunteers and, besides discounted entry fee, relies almost exclusively on donations and corporate sponsorships for it’s funding.