OPINION: Gambol Is A 'Port Washington Icon'

As someone who thoroughly enjoyed last week’s Gambol, I was appalled by Jai Sajnani’s recent column criticizing this long-held Port Washington tradition. He shows no appreciation for his town’s support and for the truly unique opportunity he experienced. I am not a Port Washington resident, but as an outsider I believe I am particularly well-positioned to argue in favor of Gambol, precisely because I can use my own prom as a basis for comparison.

The planning of the senior prom for Kennedy-Bellmore High School, from which I graduated last year, requires nowhere near as much commitment as Schreiber’s. I remember that throughout the year, the senior class would hold various fund-raisers for prom, but it seemed that these efforts were sporadic and nobody really spent much time worrying about raising money.

The Gambol ought to be applauded for its inclusivity. Fund-raising efforts helped to offset the cost for 10% of students, according to Ann Mergler, one of the Gambol chairs. This sensitivity to socioeconomic differences precisely repudiates Sajnani’s notion that Gambol exposes students to “too much extravagance.”  

Indeed, Gambol’s accessibility to all students, regardless of their family’s financial situation, is part of what makes it such a special Port Washington tradition. All students can experience the memorable moment of walking down the red carpet, with Assistant Principal Dr. Fitzgerald lavishing praise on them. In Kennedy High School, no such allure exists. Sure, students enjoy their prom. But the location tends to change every year. And absent is the huge crowd of supporters—parents, grandparents, and town residents—welcoming you into the venue, which amazed me as I walked down the red carpet.

Another example of the broad support in Port Washington for the prom was the generous donations by parents for the purchase of $15,000 worth of prizes. In effect, those prizes were parents’ gifts to their graduating children. In his column. Sajnani suggests that this was a waste of money, but it doesn’t even seem like he knows where that $15,000 came from. Sajnani overlooks parents’ generosity and fails to recognize just how deeply Gambol is embedded in Port Washington’s pride. It is unlikely that the prom’s organizers would have been able to marshal that funding for prizes if Gambol weren’t a Port Washington icon.

Finally, Gambol is a more controlled environment than the Kennedy prom, in part because of the presence of parent volunteers and in part because its late start time deters students from going to New York City clubs right afterward. Many Kennedy students in past years have left their prom early to head to Manhattan, only to be turned away by club bouncers. 

Sajnani clearly owes the Gambol organizers an apology for his lack of appreciation for their hard work—and a thank-you for putting together his final Schreiber experience. 

Editor's Note: The author is dating a daughter of Gambol co-chair Ann Mergler. The opinion in this posting is that solely of the author.