Delaware County Special Needs Prom Expands Program But Needs Your Donations

By Lynne Hatfield—

MUNCIE, IN—The Mission Statement of the Delaware County Special Needs Prom/Events, Inc. is “to create social events that inspire and enhance self-esteem for individuals with special needs.  These social events will also educate the community on the unique and wonderful abilities of some very special individuals.”

We have special needs adult children.  However, transitioning from school to adulthood has been very difficult.  Unfortunately, the adult special needs community is often forgotten and pushed aside.  It is because of this fact that our organization continues to evolve and go beyond our initial mission statement and expand our programming for all special needs communities of Indiana.

The social events and support services we facilitate and organize are our annual Special Needs Prom, Monthly Hillcroft Spa Day, Monthly haircuts for Hillcroft ABA Autism Clinic, Summer Bash Blast Picnic, Fall Harvest Hoedown, Halloween Trunk or Treat, Roll into New Year Bowling Party, Special Needs Prom and “Say Yes to the Dress” Dress Party .

At our 2024 prom, we had over 900 very special individuals from communities throughout Indiana.  We were planning on over 1,000 for the 2025 event.

The annual special needs prom is not our only community event or service.  In conjunction with the Special Prom, we have a “Say Yes to the Dress” Dress party April 12 for the girls.  This event allows girls to come and select a prom dress and all the necessary accessories for free.  In addition,  We are trying to get gently used sports jackets and ties to offer and have a Dress To Impress Party April 19 for the guys.

All of these events bring a sense of belonging and acceptance to these amazing individuals.  In addition, we welcome volunteers within our community for all of our events in order to educate, inspire and communicate the importance of acceptance and inclusion for the special needs community. The Special Needs community is so deserving of these events but sadly COVID-19 has hurt our donations tremendously. We solely run on donations, so we have been trying hard to get grants. That hasn’t been very successful, so we are trying to get people to become aware of how amazing the special needs community is and how much they have to offer. I think if people knew this they would donate.

Since our prom is so big, we have to rent out the Horizon Convention Center. It is the only venue that can hold 1000 people.

The Horizon Center has a policy that you have to order all food, DJ, face painting, tattoos etc. all through them. Before, all these were donated. Since that isn’t allowed, it has raised our cost to put on prom to over $30,000. We need $50,000 a year to put on all events. Last year we decided to just serve desserts to cut the cost. I know our attendees were disappointed because we have always served a meal. 

 We cannot forget these special people who teach us so much about life, love, acceptance and community.

Thank you so much and God bless.

Photos from the 2017  Special Needs Prom held at Muncie Central High School can be seen below. (From our archives.) Click on a thumbnail to view larger images. Photos by: Mike Rhodes unless otherwise indicated.