SPOKANE, Wash. – Hundreds of kids at Ferris High School have parents who perform in Ham on Regal every single year.
It’s a fundraising musical put on by 250+ Ferris parents. Every year a brand-new musical and comedy show is written, composed, choreographed, and designed by volunteers. This year the theme is Bacon and Brilliance: Quest for the Cup.
Since the first show back in 1963, Ham on Regal has raised over $3 million for Ferris. Proceeds help fund academics, athletics, classroom administrative and supply needs for teachers and students.
As you can imagine, the preparation can be a lot.
Parents prepare for this year-round. They spend all day at their full-time jobs, then they go home for a snack before arriving at school for rehearsal. How long do they rehearse? Well, that depends on their role.
Some parents are in-and-out within an hour because they play a smaller part within the production, others spend hours and hours rehearsing at school, then they take their costumes home and go over their dance moves to loud music often while their kids are getting home for the day from school.
Then, before they perform, parents wear a sign on their chest that has their kids’ name and a picture of them (usually a baby pic). They also find ways to use their kid’s name in their lines.
So how do the kids feel about this? We spoke with a number of students; their quotes are below…
“Yeah, I’ve been dealing with this for a while. It’s rough.”
“It’s pretty fun but it is embarrassing and torturous when I have to come home at night and hear constant dance numbers from awful movies.”
“I’m really embarrassed, I didn’t ask for this…”
“[my mom] has been practicing all over at home. I come home I hear Ham on Regal. I come to school I hear Ham on Regal. There’s no escaping it really, it’s horrible.”
“it is so fun. I get to sit there and make fun of my parents with all my friends and it’s great.”
“My brother is still in the program so I still have to suffer through this so I might come home from college and she’s still doing Ham on Regal… Scary thoughts…”
Keep in mind that the students who said these things also expressed their gratitude to their parents for raising money for their school, and for doing something they are passionate about.
If you want to watch Ham on Regal, shows are at 7 p.m. every night from Wednesday to Saturday of this week. Tickets are $10, you can get them at the door or at their website.
For more information you can email showchairs@hamonregal.org.
For what we wrote about last year’s show, click here:
