Students' signature moves, styles highlight prom for life skills students from Valley, Burrell, Mt. Pleasant, Kiski Area

Valley High School junior Antoine Wilkerson doesn’t consider himself to be a big dancer.

But as DJ Matt Roberts played more and more songs Thursday morning at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 92 in Lower Burrell, Wilkerson’s friends eventually got him onto the dance floor.

Wilkerson and about 50 other life skills students from four high schools — Valley, Burrell, Mt. Pleasant Area and Kiski Area — celebrated a prom for students with special needs, hosted by the New Kensington-Arnold School District.

“What’s most fun is hanging out with my friends,” said Wilkerson, 17.

Amanda Johns, life skills support teacher at Valley, said the idea for a special needs prom for area high schools originated in 2019. All students wore a blue-and-gold shirt designed with the prom’s theme of “Under the Stars.”

Students enjoyed dancing and taking pictures, and they were served breakfast and lunch.

“It’s giving them the opportunity that most of them wouldn’t have otherwise,” Johns said.

Valley life skills students have operated a coffee cart at the school for the past five years, and proceeds help to pay for the prom’s expenses, Johns said. The coffee cart runs every Friday morning at Valley High and gets about 120 customers per shift. The weekly interaction teaches students important socialization skills as well as vocational job skills.

“It’s been really good helping them come out of their shell,” said Amy Albright, a life skills support staff member at Valley. “It’s been phenomenal.”

Making — and drinking — the iced coffee was Wilkerson’s favorite part of the coffee cart, he said.

Students arrived at the Lower Burrell VFW with their school classmates, but quickly mingled with everyone else on the dance floor.

Sydney Novak, a freshman at Burrell, wowed prom-goers with her signature jumping and kicking dance, a move she dubbed “The Syd.”

She enjoyed dancing to all the songs, as did Burrell sophomore Travis Blake, who showed off some impressive moves including a split, the ankle-breaker and a drop.

“He practices in the classroom,” Burrell teacher Hannah Cress said.

The key to Blake’s sick moves? “I have no idea,” he said. “I just make it up as I go.”

Renee Blystone, a Kiski junior, got her dance inspiration from pop star Justin Bieber. Her favorite moves, she said, were doing the worm and dabbing. She said she enjoyed teaching the dances to her friends.

While Mike Gustafson, a Mt. Pleasant senior, wasn’t into dancing, he impressed the crowd with his style: a signature white cowboy hat with his nickname, “Cowboy Tex,” written on the side.

Gustafson wears the hat every day and says he has a love for the country lifestyle.

Gustafson writes country music with friends and, while he wasn’t on the dance floor often, he said his favorite song, “Wagon Wheel,” could have gotten him up there.

“I’m a big country writer,” he said.