Senior prom is one of the many rituals that local high schoolers are missing out on this spring amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But thanks to the efforts of their parents and others, two couples got a chance to attend a personal “pandemic prom” in Powell last month.

Melisa Lynn spearheaded the April 25 event for her son, Powell High School senior Cayden Lynn and his girlfriend, Wyoming Connections Academy senior Cheyanne Higgs. They were joined by their friends Kalen Sapp, who is a junior at PHS, and Rocky Mountain High School senior Alyssa Beech.

“[I] just wanted to be able to give the kids a little bit of a taste of something normal,” Melisa Lynn explained in an interview, adding in a Facebook post that, “It’s not fair that these kids should miss out on all of the best parts of their senior year due to a virus.”

The event was intended to be a surprise for Higgs.

Her parents, Mike and Tanya, allowed her to get a prom dress, but it was explained that she was only going to be able to wear it for some pictures. When she and Cayden Lynn stopped by the Powell Senior Citizens Center on the night of April 25, the explanation was that they were only there to pick up Melisa Lynn, who works at the facility. In fact, the center had been lovingly converted into a prom site.

Unfortunately for Cayden, his date figured out what was really happening right before they arrived.

“Once we got there, I was going to get down and say, ‘Will you go to prom with me?’” Cayden Lynn recalled, but “right as I started saying the sentence, she [Higgs] already said, ‘yes’ and, ‘I already know what this is.’”

“The one moment that I’ve got a plan, she ruins it,” he quipped.

Joined by Sapp and Beech, Lynn and Higgs were served a dinner from WYOld West Brewing Company by Lynn’s mother Melisa and little sister, Addy. Their tables were “socially distanced, of course — far enough apart that we were following the guidelines,” Melisa Lynn explained.

After the meal, the tables were cleared out and music played so the four teens could do some dancing. They did … for about two songs, “just long enough for everybody to get pictures,” Melisa Lynn said; after four hours of setup, “they were there for a grand total of about 45 minutes,” she added with a laugh.

Cayden Lynn explained that he was burning up in the outfit he’d borrowed for the occasion and Higgs was ready to get out of her high heels. (He added that, at last year’s official PHS prom, “no one really danced” there, either.) The group changed clothes and retired to the Lynns’ house, where they played Taboo and other board games for the rest of the night.

A traditional prom would have been better, Cayden Lynn thinks, but this event was special, as the dance felt more personal and less like a popularity contest.

“I’d say I’d do it again,” he said. “You don’t have the stress of everyone else at the prom judging you, what you’re wearing and how you look.”

The pandemic prom was a group effort. Beyond Melisa Lynn’s efforts in organizing the event, Powell Senior Center Program Director Cathy Florian OK’d it, Mike and Tanya Higgs and Laurie Sweet helped with the decorations, Jim Wysocki covered the rental fee for the facility, Rovenna Signs & Design personalized vases for the prom with the couples’ names and Cassandra Iverson of Iverson Photos took pictures at no cost.

“... It was a really fun event,” Iverson said.

While the makeshift prom may have been short, Melisa Lynn knows the effort was appreciated; both Cayden Lynn and Sapp made a point of expressing their thanks later that night.

“Cayden came and gave me a big hug and said, ‘Thank you so much for everything you did today,’” Melisa Lynn said.

She added in a Facebook post that, “It wasn’t anything grand or super fancy, but it was an opportunity for them to make special memories.”