Graduations
Continued from Page 23
celebrating any graduations beneath high school in his more
than 25 years as a DJ. He said the first milestone events he
does are mitzvahs, followed by sweet 16 parties.

“Anything younger than that, the traditional outlet
has been a BounceU, a Chuck E. Cheese or some-
thing small in their backyard for family
members,” he said.

A growing problem Smith has noticed at the
parties, dances and mitzvahs he does is that the
young attendees need something more than
just music to hold their attention. When he’s
just playing records and nothing else is going
on, they’re glued to their smartphones.

“They’re not disconnected [from their
phones] very long unless you’ve got something
to keep their attention,” he said.

For elementary and middle school
graduation parties, get games such
as foosball, arcade basketball and/or
hire a disc jockey so that the graduates
aren’t glued to their smartphones.

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Andrew Scharff, a clown, comic and juggler from
Philadelphia’s Belmont Village section (although he now lives in
South Philadelphia), also hasn’t done any parties to celebrate
graduations lower than high school. He did perform at one such
graduation though — in El Salvador on his Clown the World trip.

Scharff said he studied at clown college and then spent nine
years performing in circuses in the United States, in Europe and
in Japan. He followed that up with six years as a juggler and come-
dian on cruise ships. He has performed in China six times and
before one pope — John Paul II.

His Clown the World trip combined charity with tourism, as
he performed at schools, orphanages and homes for the elderly in
places he always wanted to see, with his girlfriend along to docu-
ment the experience on video.

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Merida Alexander said that
although her Morrisville-based firm,
Events by Merida, hasn’t been asked
to plan parties specifically to celebrate
middle school graduations, it has done
some birthday parties that happened
around the time the guest of honor
graduated from middle school and were
made a little more elaborate as a result.

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“I’ve enjoyed working in the circuses and on the cruise ships,
and those have been great jobs, but I just wanted to go to even
more places and I realized I wasn’t going to find a paying gig in
Guatemala,” he said.

Merida Alexander said that although her Morrisville-based
firm, Events by Merida, hasn’t been asked to plan parties specifi-
cally to celebrate middle school graduations, it has done some
birthday parties that happened around the time the guest of honor
graduated from middle school and were made a little more elabo-
rate as a result.

And, while some people consider celebrating graduations of
elementary and middle school to be the equivalent of giving out
participation trophies for academic achievement, Alexander isn’t
among them.

“It’s fun for the kids, they feel like they’ve accomplished
something and as much as it may seem silly, if it encourages kids
to enjoy education … I don’t think it can be looked down upon,”
she said. l
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