For the graduating senior, this year has a lot of lasts: their last chapel, their last senior kickball game, their last convocation and their last final exams.

But maybe not so in the spotlight is the Marksmen Ball – a similar lifetime milestone.

Senior sponsors GayMarie Vaughan and Bryan Boucher said the ball, which took place on May 11 this year, started as a formal, black-tie event centered around the unveiling of the new yearbook and its dedicatee – who, this year, was unveiled as longtime security guard Doug Brady.

“(The unveiling of the dedicatee) is a really special moment for a faculty member and other faculty members there,” Vaughan said. “They are always just amazingly excited for the person who gets honored, because it’s fun to see a peer or colleague get recognized in that way. It’s very special.”

But for seniors, Marksman Ball is one of those life-shaping experiences they won’t forget.

“It’s an important event. It’s the last thing they do really before graduation, aside from Baccalaureate,” Vaughan said. “Marksman Ball is more than just about the yearbook. It is a special milestone event for the senior class and a time to remember their years at 10600 Preston Road.”

For the teachers, especially Vaughan and Boucher, it’s a special event -— in its own unique way.

“I really enjoy seeing the boys all dressed up,” Vaughan said. “They just look like young men. At that moment, I mean, they really have grown up a lot at the end of their senior year. It’s nostalgic to be with them in those final, important events and to see them kind of come full circle at the end.”

Aside from the treasured mother-son dance, Boucher believes that one of the favorite moments of Marksman Ball is the senior slideshow, in which seniors laugh and tease each other as photos of their classmates appear on the screen, and try to guess who it could be before the person is revealed in their senior photo.

And as the night goes on, emotions and excitement only rise.

“I think there’s an excitement that sort of builds throughout the night for a lot of guys it is sort of that moment of, ‘Wow, I’m leaving this place,’” Boucher said. “It can be a pretty emotional night just because it’s a good chance for them to reflect on their career as a Marksman.”

And when alumni return on alumni weekends to visit their old mentors and meet with their peers, there’s always a special moment when they reminisce about Marksman Ball.

“They have this look on their face like, ‘That was a wonderful memory,’” Vaughan said.