"It's definitely a growing trend," she said. "People are catching on. It's a lot of fun and a great way to celebrate the end of the school year. We've expanded to Thursdays because we've ended up getting a lot of schools on Fridays and Saturdays, so we're trying to accommodate as many as we can."
Dave and Buster's in Hanover was booked almost every weekend in the spring for high school events, said Joe Burke, special events manager.
Even with the incentives and lavish prizes, sometimes students don't attend the after-prom parties.
"There's less of it in Carroll, because of the expense involved, and students were not coming out in large numbers," said Sherri-Le Bream, director of high schools for Carroll County public schools.
It's a concern that the parents at Wright had.
"We started this thinking if 50 kids showed up, then we had 50 kids we kept from going someplace drinking and possibly not ending up the way they should on prom night. You can imagine how we felt with 240 kids," said Linda Vitali, a co-chairwoman for the event at C. Milton Wright.
In the early morning at the C. Milton Wright party, two juniors zigzagged around the potty race course on the motorized toilets, occasionally bumping into the inflatable walls, unleashing a fit of giggles.
"Everybody said it's going to be fun; that's why we came," said Meghan McNeil, 17, as she took a break from racing to send a text message.
"Plus, it's safer, and it's not worth getting in trouble," said her friend, Lanie Merkle, 16, who sat beside her on another racer. "Toilets are an adrenaline rush."
As the party came to a close, Stephanie Foley, an exhausted Wright senior, fell asleep. Her father woke her in time for the raffle.
"She was quite grumpy and kept saying, 'I just want to go home,' " said her father, Scott Foley. "But she's not too grumpy anymore."
His daughter won the raffle for the used maroon Toyota Camry.
madison.park@baltsun.com
