LOSTANT – A Lostant family threw a highly personalized prom after Putnam County High School canceled theirs due to COVID-19.

Like most local schools, Putnam County canceled this year’s prom due to coronavirus, but one Lostant woman, Jenifer Shaver, didn’t want to see her son and his girlfriend go without, so she threw them their own prom.

Shaver, a nurse who’s worked through the pandemic, and her husband Brian, LaSalle-Peru High School’s dean of students, have experience homeschooling their kids so creativity has always been a strong point for them.

She’s also no stranger to throwing a good family party – the mom of five has family fun nights that are second to none.

Thanks to her creativity, her family has had a virtual Hawaiian vacation, “camped in the mountains,” gone to outer space and visited princess fairy unicorn land right from home.

When it came to prom, she says throwing her own was a no-brainer.

“When our vacation got canceled, I decided we’d do a staycation, but not an ordinary one,” she said. “We went all out with a Hawaiian theme, with decorations, traditional foods, clothes, an ocean waves sound machine and music. Just because we had to stay home doesn’t mean we can’t leave in our minds.”

“I think it’s important to just be present in the moment, but turn those moments into memories,” Shaver added.” I don’t want the kids’ memories to be that they didn’t get to play sports, or didn’t get to go to their prom.”

Shaver said she understands why prom was canceled and supports the administration 100% so she decided she didn’t want to try to throw a competing event, or one that could exclude anyone, so she decided to honor her son and his girlfriend with their own dance, but also included her two younger children and their Argentinian au pair Aldi who helped plan the event.

After deciding on a masquerade ball theme, Shaver got to work searching for formal wear, renting a dance floor – a well-kept secret that she says paid off when her son’s girlfriend Kendra laid eyes on it, making bouquets for the girls, getting lights, a sound system, chocolate fountain, backdrops and photographer lined up.

“I had a lot of amazing businesses help me out with deals on the dance floor, sound system, pie pops and more, because they were enthusiastic about the idea,” she said.

As for the results? She says the only people who knew about the dance floor were Aldi (the au pair) and I.

“Corbin was super surprised and Kendra almost cried. I told her that she had to wait until after pictures,” Shaver said.

“Her parents came just for the pictures and they were both pretty teary-eyed. It was absolutely wonderful. They had the night of their lives.”