Bishop England High School students throw make-up prom for student in car accident

For many students, prom is the penultimate high school rite of passage; a chance to celebrate with childhood friends before another life chapter starts. “It’s part of the high school experience,” said Bishop England High School student Celia Campbell. “It’s a place where you can hang out with your friends, you can have fun, and just kind of let loose.”

Sadly for Campbell, that night of dresses and rented limos was suddenly halted by a car accident.

In April before her prom, the rising senior and her family were struck by a drunk driver in a head-on collision. “I was in the hospital for about two weeks,” recalled Campbell. “I had major surgery. I had parts of my intestines removed, I had a really bad concussion, a broken rib.”

The Campbell family escaped the accident with their lives, but the recovery process left Celia unable to attend her prom.

A lot of high school juniors in Campbell’s situation would cut their losses and just look forward to next year’s end of school dance, but friend and Bishop England Basketball teammate Josie Dennis had other plans in store for Campbell. “She [Campbell] had been talking about it [prom] for months beforehand,” said Dennis. “We were all so excited and it was heartbreaking to see she couldn’t experience that, like everybody.”

Dennis created a second prom, just for Campbell, in response to seeing her friend miss out on an event she was looking forward to year-round.

“I shared it with some of my friends and I asked them if they would love to help out and every single one of them said they would love to help and do whatever they could,” said Dennis. “It’s reallythe community that came together for this.”

Teachers, parents, and Bishop England students jumped in to help put the event together. The make-up prom was hosted in the high school’s courtyard, had music, games, food, and the same prom theme, “Under the Stars,” as the school’s official dance.

“They were really amazing about letting us do it in the school, because they knew how important that prom was,” said Dennis.

“Celia is an incredible young woman,” said Bishop England High School Dean of Students Mary Ann Tucker. “We really had just a groundswell of support from our school community for both Ryan [Campbell] and Celia, and there was just a lot of empathy and concern that Celia would have to miss such a milestone in her high school career.”

When Bishop England found out about the make-up prom, they were quick to help. “As a school community and the administration, we would do anything within our power to make that happen,” said Tucker.

“She’s [Celia’s] such a strong person,” said Dennis. “She’ll make it through anything. I tore my ACL this past basketball season and she’s just been so helpful in all of that, and so I knew I had to do the same for her, because she dropped everything to help me.”

Both Dennis and Campbell said that roughly 50 people attended the second prom. “If there’s one good thing that came out of it, it’s definitely showed me who my true friends are, and the prom helpedout with that,” said Campbell. “The prom and everybody that came to it was really uplifting and really helped my morale and my spirits.”

While Campbell’s looking forward to the next prom, she said that this one will be tough to beat. “I’m not sure anything can top this prom,” she said.