PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Sherman Bynum certainly made quite an entrance to his prom Saturday night.
The Camas High School junior rode to their prom at the Portland Art Museum in an M3A1 Stuart tank. That’s right, a tank.
Bynum wanted to do this since February when they found out the school would set up a special parking lot for students to arrive in style.
Bynum had already been checking out tanks on the internet as a hobby so he posed the idea to his friend, senior Sam Tetro. So months ago they began a GoFundMe to raise the $1000 needed to get the private owner of the tank to carry them to the art museum.
“I made some phone calls to a group in Minnesota that rents battle tanks out for you to select for builders and stuff. They were like $20,000, you know, and that’s happening. And so we called the museum in Oregon. They didn’t have anything but they got us in contact with a guy. Talk to the guy. Within about 15 minutes, we had a deal worked out,” he told KOIN 6 News. “The price tag is $1000. And so we decided to turn a GoFundMe by the end of the night. When that GoFundMe is posted, we had about 570 bucks, we’d reached the next goal within the next few days.”
They actually raised $1675 with their GoFundMe.
But is this legal? Well, yes.
“This act will be perfectly legal,” Bynum said in an email to KOIN 6 News. “According to all documents provided by the State of Oregon, and the information about the tank, we will be safely within road limits, and legal to carry this out. We are just looking to have fun and make a scene.”
Bynum, his date Mycah and Tetro rolled up to the prom at the Portland Art Museum with a lot of fanfare — fanfare that included Portland’s unofficial ambassador, The Unipiper.
This tank at the prom is a great memory that will be shared at their 50th class reunion in 2073.