News and Events
The Tobacco Free Partnership Sponsors the 2014 Okeechobee High School Grad Night
May 6, 2014
For the last 25 years Okeechobee has not had one death of a senior on graduation night and that is largely because of Grad Night.
The community of Okeechobee has united once again to offer our best wishes to our high school graduates by hosting the annual all-night Grad Night celebration! The celebration is open to all graduating seniors and one pre-approved guest of their choice.
Grad Night is organized by a local committee and supported by: the Okeechobee County Board of Education, The Okeechobee Educational Foundation, Kiwanis Club of Okeechobee, Okeechobee Rotary Club, and the Children’s Services Council of Okeechobee. The Tobacco Free Partnership of Okeechobee County was honored to help sponsor this year's event, which creates a drug-and-alcohol free event for local high school graduates.
Grad Night begins one hour after the high school graduation ceremony ends. The event is held at the Okeechobee KOA convention center. Graduating seniors attend the event with a pre-approved guest of the choice. Upon arrival each student is checked in and given a wristband, the students are not permitted outside of the building during the entire event, and they are not permitted to leave the event and return.
During Grad Night the students are fed meals, play games all night in which they win tokens for prizes at the end of the event. The event is over at 6am the following morning, at which time the tokens can be redeemed for over ten thousand dollars’ worth of prizes.
By not allowing the students to leave and return, and not allowing the students to obtain their prizes until the next morning it encourages the youth to stay the entire time of the event. As always this event is drug, alcoholic, and tobacco free.