Yerington will "Y2K the Night Away" on New Year's Eve

YERINGTON - Families can ring the new millennium in together at the "Y2K the Night Away" celebration Friday night at Yerington High School.

Yerington Soroptimists International members thought up the event and some churches joined in to provide baby-sitting and prizes.

"Everything else is going on at the casinos," said event chairman Diana Turner, also the Soroptimists vice president. "That's what we're trying to get away from. We want something where a family can go together."

Festivities will include a cake walk, dance contests from different eras, bingo and karaoke. Fireworks will go off behind the high school at midnight.

"It's going to be fun," Turner said. "There isn't going to be any drinking. It will be drug-free and alcohol-free."

Turner encourages senior citizens to take part.

Children of any age are welcome, though kids age 13 or younger must come with a parent. Children can take part in all the events. The band room will be set up with cleaned wrestling mats, videos, and free baby-sitting provided by the youth group from the Yerington Vineyard Fellowship.

"That will let them lay down if they can't make it to midnight," Turner said.

Vineyard will also provide 50 cakes as the prizes in the cake walk. This involves a variation on musical chairs: people walk and whoever's on the right spot when the music stops wins a cake.

Admission is one item of non-perishable food that will go to the food bank in Yerington. Everybody will get a ticket for the door prizes. The biggest prize will be awarded right before midnight.

"We're not sure yet (what the big prize will be)," Turner said. "We're still getting things."

"Y2K the Night Away" will also have a booth decorated with balloons for families to pose for millennium snapshots.

Turner has no inkling how many people may show up but Soroptimists is thinking long-term with New Year's Eve events.

"If it catches on, we may do it yearly," she said.

"Y2K the Night Away" starts at 8 p.m. Friday at the multipurpose room at Yerington High School, 114 Pearl Street.