Revere High School (RHS) seniors are finding new ways to spend their last few weeks until they graduate, and they decided to hold a senior sunset on May 21.
In years past, the RHS senior class got an after party on prom night that is at The Works in Akron. It has arcade games, food, candy and gift cards. The Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) noticed that the amount of students that would attend was decreasing every year, so they decided to not host it for the 2026 graduating class. Class Council president Ria Mahapatra explained the thought process behind senior sunset.
“[Class Council] got told that we’re not going to be doing an after prom this year, so we were just kind of thinking of other ideas that the PTSA can donate their money that they raise [that would have gone towards after prom]. . . . Normally, we only have senior sunrise, and ours [got] rained out this year. We were like ‘Okay, what if we do a senior sunset towards the end of the year to make up for [the lack of a] senior sunrise,’ because I know a lot of people were upset about that,” Mahapatra said.
Another way they decided to not do after prom is because at the beginning of the year, Mahapatra sent out a Google Form to all the seniors to see if they would still like to have an after prom.
“We sent out a Google Form [and] at that point, it wasn’t like for sure that they [PTSA] wasn’t doing after prom. . . . [They were] asking me to see whether people would go or not, about 50% [said they would not],” Mahapatra said.
The theme for this event fits in with all the things the seniors would do in their childhood. This includes fair games and activities during the summer. Secretary Sofia Jakab and the other class officers thought that this idea would go well with the 2016 aesthetics that are trending right now.
“[Class Council is] making [the senior sunset] summer 2016 vibes. So we’re gonna do like a bunch of parachute games or things that we did when we were in elementary school,” Jakab said.
During previous years’ after proms, the students would have to pay for the tickets, but for senior sunset, it is completely free to seniors.
“It’s all sponsored by the PTSA, and the good thing is that they’re also sponsoring gift cards,” Mahapatra said.
One thing that after prom always does is a gift card raffle. Every student can put their name into a raffle, and periodically, they will choose someone and they will get a gift card of some sort. So this year, they are doing this again, but this time all the seniors who show up will get a gift card.
“[For other years’] after prom they [did] like the gift card stuff, so [we are] going to have that at senior sunset, and then everyone’s going to get a $25 gift card,” Jakab said.
Another thing they plan on having is an ice cream truck come and resemble when an ice cream truck would come into the neighborhood when the seniors were younger.
“We’re also getting a Pav’s ice cream truck. So people will be able to just go get that in line for that,” Mahapatra said.
The people who founded Pav’s have kids that attend(ed) RHS so Principal Doug Faris and the PTSA were able to find a way to contact them.
“the owner’s [a] Revere family. He had a graduate last year, and he’s got a kid right now that’s a junior, and so the PTSA mom knew him,” Faris said.
One big thing about this is that unlike after prom, seniors will be the only ones in attendance. Faris has ensured that there will only be seniors.
“I just promised that I’d be there to help promote and make sure that as seniors only attend,” Faris said.
This event will take place at the front lot field. There were multiple different ideas on where it would be but the class officers, PTSA and Faris thought this would be the best place for it.
“We talked about the admin field, we talked about the turf [and] we talked about the softball outfield. But it just made the most sense to do it right out front here and almost where senior sunrise was supposed to be,” Faris said.
