Prom It Forward: Money Collected for Party Goes to COVID-19 Research

A Maryland high school donated the money it raised for prom to an effort to fight COVID-19 when the pandemic forced it to cancel the party.

Wootton High School’s Class of 2020 collected $1,600 in prom money.

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“We could have used the money to put in a bench for our school or, I don’t know, planting a tree for our class,” class Secretary Macy Fewell said. “We realized home much we had missed out on as high school seniors and we really wanted to put that money toward a cause that would help future high school seniors.”

Instead, they gave it the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine in Bethesda, which has received funding from Operation Warp Speed to help in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Director Dr. Joseph Caravalho, a retired U.S. Army major general, was supposed to be Wootton’s commencement speaker, but there was no commencement.

“I’m very proud of this young group of men and women as they launch into adulthood that they could see fit to see beyond themselves not only in their community but for their nation and their fellow Americans,” Caravalho said.

The Henry M. Jackson Foundation is a non-profit research group.