WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (WENY) -- As the 2023-2024 school year wraps up, celebrations like prom kick off Summer with an "Ultimate Ride to Prom" hosted by Watkins Glen International. The ride to prom's goal is to encourage safe driving practices during a celebratory night.

"Tomorrow night (Saturday, May 11th) with high school seniors in from taking part in the stop DWI program by New York State Department of Transportation, and our team will be hosting six students from Dundee High School and Watkins Glen Area High School," says President of Watkins Glen International Dawn Burlew. 'We'll be taking them to dinner laps on the track and then to the prom and back home."

Six total students are going to buckle into the pace cars which will do everything from pick them up from their homes, to take them to prom. 

"Being an advocate for our community and educating our community and our students on how to be safe in what they're doing, still enjoying everything that. The memory of very high school prom. We all remember and cherish it deeply, but at the end of the day it's being safe and understanding what we're getting {ourselves} into it's 16, 17, 18 year{s} old. We want them to understand that," says Burlew.

The program started in 2020 and over the last three years, the event has added two more schools to the prom raffle. Schools participating include Watkins Glen, Odessa Montour, and Dundee High School. 

Saturday, May 11th, and May 18th look like this, "they're in our Toyota Camry. They're our pace drivers, which are our team here at the track. We'll take them two times around the track, then they're going to do pictures on our start-finish line, which actually will be pretty cool for them in their prom dresses and tuxes, and then they take them down to dinner at the harbor, and then to the prom," Burlew shared.

Students for the "Ultimate Ride"  have all been selected for the upcoming proms. Buckle up because it is time to go to prom.