With the theme “Once Upon A Time,” the Circle of Friends will need some help to create a fairy tale fantasy at Saturday’s Grand Ball for special needs students here.

Students will be needed to help decorate on Friday and Saturday, principal’s secretary Kay Sutton said. With the half school day on Friday, volunteers are needed from 1 p.m. through midnight to help decorate the cafeteria. Saturday decorating will begin no later than noon and will depend on how much is accomplished on Friday. Any students interested in helping can just show up on Friday and Saturday.

The Grand Ball will be held from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. on Saturday. Help will also be needed to clean up after the dance. Only people with tickets for the dance will be able to help  after the dance, and clean up will begin about 10 minutes after the last dance.

Special education teacher Kyle Smith first got involved with the Ball 11 years ago when he first started teaching here. Smith would consider himself as the facilitator with the Ball, he sends out forms, finds out which family members can go, and if there are any younger siblings going. Smith said he enjoys seeing the special needs kids having fun with their peers.

“Well it’s the highlight of their year,” Smith said. “I don’t know if they realize it’s a time for them to kind of do some things that their [regular education] friends get to do. But it is them getting to dress up and dance. When they start dancing, most of them never stop until the end.”

The Grand Ball does not just affect the students and the faculty that helps, but also the families of the students.

“The parents of the special ed kids know that their kids will never get to experience some things, and they get see their kid be introduced at the ball, which they never thought would happen,” Smith said. “If it’s somebody’s first time, there are usually lots of tears. It’s a pretty moving experience.”

Sutton also has a big part in the ball.

“I call myself the coordinator,” Sutton said. “I kind of coordinate all of the areas and put them together.”

Sutton has been helping with the ball since it first started 17 years ago.

“While we are getting ready for the ball we are teaching the kids different dances, [manners], and how to be a good companion,” Sutton said.

The Grand Ball affects people on an emotional level, Sutton said, by bringing together the students, the faculty, and the community.

“I get joy knowing that we have provided something for these families that they just never imagined would be,” Sutton said. “But more than that, I’m the one that’s taught, those students teach each one of us so much. We have people walk away from [the Ball] saying they are a whole different person in the way they look at others and think of others.”