Ellington Juniors and Seniors Celebrate Annual Rite of Passage – It's Prom Time!

In undoubtedly one of the town's most beloved traditions, teenagers and their family members descended on the Ellington Town Green on May 13 to usher in the 2011 Junior-Senior Prom with a chance to capture photographic memories.

No one can pinpoint with 100 percent certainty when it began (most likely, in the mid-1980s), but it's been a long-standing pre-prom tradition for as long as anyone can remember.

“[The green] is the tradition of the prom that stands out the most for me,” said junior Emma Barfield.

“It's a time for all of us to see each other, because you may miss [people] at the prom,” noted junior Melissa French.

“I love it,” said EHS junior Talia Vazquez.

For Brian and Beth Smith of Ellington, the prom rite of passage has been celebrated three times before, as their daughter attended Ellington proms her sophomore, junior and senior years. But this is the first time they've been the parents of a young man attending prom.

“It's nice to be around other people excited about the prom,” Beth said, as prom-goers, friends and family all milled around the green.

“It's wonderful,” Beth said of the yearly tradition. “I went to EHS [Class of 1981] and they didn't have this tradition.”

But fellow 1981 graduate Gary Feldman, Sr. who was at the green with his two sons, Gary Jr. and Joshua, remembers it differently. While there wasn't a gathering of this magnitude at the town green, he does remember taking photos for his prom there.

Sydney Bassett-Wooley, an Ellington senior, was among the first, along with her date Shawn Blotniski, a junior at in Manchester, to arrive at the green. It was hard to miss their camouflage ensembles.

“I always wanted to have a camo dress,” said Bassett-Wooley. “It's kind of dedicated to Robbie [Dunn, an EHS grad recently killed in an accident on Rte. 83].”

“And I got talked into it,” said Blotniski, who found his camo vest and tie at .

“It was either camo or bright orange,” said Bassett-Wooley, who found her dress on the hunting clothing, apparel and merchandise website, mossyoak.com, and paired the dress with cowboy boots.

“My little sister, who is 11, already asked if she can wear it,” she said of the dress.

Beth Smith realizes she has a well-known name these days. She shares her name with the Shelton High School headmaster Beth Smith, who is in the center of a prom debacle pitting her and the school administration against the mounting support for James Tate, a senior who asked his would-be date to the prom with giant cardboard letters taped to the school, only to be suspended and not allowed to attend.

“This Beth Smith would have let him go,” Ellington's Smith said.

Ellington's prom was held this year at in the Weatogue section of Simsbury.