Bill Ogg is used to college kids. Walking down Sherman Avenue, he said it’s hard to miss the throngs of students decked in purple, though he said they’re “always on their cell phones.”
But for three hours on Saturday afternoon, Ogg didn’t just pass students on the street. He danced alongside them at prom.
Ogg was one of about 40 senior citizens who attended Northwestern Community Development Corps’ annual Senior Gala, a prom for senior citizens living in Evanston held in the Norris University Center’s Louis Room at 1 p.m. Saturday.
“I think it’s a good mix with the people of Evanston and the Northwestern students,” said Ogg, who said he has attended the prom for several years. “They get to communicate with each other.”
Kolby White, NCDC special events co-chair, said the purpose of the prom is to do just that.
“Senior gala is a really cool event for NCDC because it’s really when we’re able to reach out to the Evanston community and bring in senior citizens that otherwise would have no interaction with students,” the Weinberg senior said.
This year’s theme, “Around the World,” allowed NCDC to offer ethnic cuisine donated by over 12 local restaurants.
In addition to the international food, the gala included performances by Extreme Measures A Cappella, music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha’s barbershop quartet, Jewish a capella group ShireiNU, South Asian a capella group Brown Sugar and the Bhangra Dance Team.
Beside student performances, the house band, the Senior Stompers, played classic songs from the 1930s and 1940s that drew students and seniors like Ogg and Evanston resident Blair Laden, a longtime organizer of the gala, to the dance floor.
“I didn’t plan on dancing,” said Laden, who said she needed to be cautious after recently undergoing nasal surgery. “But I couldn’t resist.”
The Senior Stompers, a jazz and swing band with a 92-year-old trumpeter and 91-year-old trombone player, has performed at the Senior Gala for the past four years, said 70-year-old pianist Keith Reed of Northfield.
White said he was pleased with the turnout, noting that despite freezing temperature, plenty of seniors showed up throughout the day.
“Since it’s 15 degrees out, it’s definitely hard to get senior citizens out on days like this,” White said. “But this is on average actually more people than we usually have.”
The gala may have been smaller than the typical high school senior prom, but Ogg said he still enjoyed “the opportunity to do something different.”
“It’s a nice band, nice dancing, nice people,” Ogg said. “”I just danced with my friend Ruth. We’ll do it again. We’ll go out on the middle of the floor.”
