By: Alyssa Ochss | St. Clair Shores Sentinel | Published March 15, 2024
ST. CLAIR SHORES — On March 8, Lake Shore High School, in collaboration with celebrity fashion stylist Johnny Wujek and JCPenney, announced to the senior class that a $50,000 donation has been made to help with prom costs for attending students.
Wujek, a 1997 Lake Shore graduate, collaborated with JCPenney to create a prom collection which was the result of 10 years of planning and designing on Wujek’s part. When he met JCPenney Vice President of Business Development Wendy Santana, he was able to bring the prom collection to life and he also learned that JCPenney had a “give back” program.
“I said, ‘Let’s go back to my high school and expose them to prom,’” Wujek said.
Santana said Lake Shore High School is the first school to which they’ve donated $50,000. The money will cover student and guest tickets. JCPenney also donated 20 complimentary salon gift certificates. The current senior class has 200 students.
Lake Shore High School principal Janelle Bross later said there will be money left over for tuxedo rentals, hair appointments, nail appointments and other prom expenses for the students.
“We’re going to try to make this the most incredibly beautiful and cost-effective prom for our seniors,” Bross said.
Bross said this unbelievable surprise was in the works for about a month.
“I got a message from Wendy, who works for JCPenney,” Bross said. “Her original message just said that she wanted to make a connection. So I didn’t realize what that involved.”
When Bross first talked to Santana about a donation, she thought they were just donating dresses.
“So when they said they were donating $50,000, I do believe that I was speechless from it,” Bross said. “I mean, that’s just such a huge, wonderful donation that will do so much good for our students.”
Marissa White, Lake Shore’s senior class president, and Adelia Nasir, the senior class vice president, said they didn’t know anything about the donation until they announced it that day.
“As far as we were concerned, we picked a regular prom theme, just as we would for any other dance, and then they all come out with the surprise today,” White said. “We were very shocked and super happy about it.”
“All we knew was that we had to dress nicely, you know, not the classic senioritis sweatpants or anything and we were going to be called up on stage,” Nasir said. “That was literally it.”
Both also said they are super excited for the donation. White called it a blessing.
“I have never been more excited in my life,” Nasir said. “This is absolutely a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Santana said they’ve been working on the prom collection for about a year once she met Wujek. They went through a process of what the collection would look like and other logistics.
“The whole life cycle is about a year from the time that we first met until right now when the goods are in the store,” Santana said.
Wujek said the collection took over a decade to create.
“Then when the green light happened to do it, we had 11 days to build the collection,” Wujek said.
Throughout the process he went through many design changes as styles changed over the years.
Santana said there are five schools in total that will receive donations. Lake Shore was chosen specifically by Wujek.
“The criteria is also the same thing,” Santana said. “They have to be community-based and do things good in their community.”
Wujek said in his opening statement that people would call him a “California man” due to his 25-year residence in the state.
“I’m always like, ‘No, no, no,’” Wujek said. “I’m a Midwest, Michigan guy through and through. Like St. Clair Shores is my roots, 12 and Jefferson is where I grew up. This is my high school. So I’ve always been connected to Michigan.”
He said he was excited to bring this opportunity to the students of Lake Shore.
“When they told me that this was a real option, I was like, ‘Oh, my God,’” Wujek said. “Like, how cool that I went to school here and I can share this full circle moment.”
Lake Shore’s prom will be held at Blossom Heath Inn on May 23. Lake Shore students should sign up for prom by the beginning of May to participate.