Lisa Lyons and Diane Steel were looking to brighten the day for the Alexander Class of 2020.
The pair set up an “Adopt a Senior Program” where members of the community, teachers, former students and parents adopted any member of the Class of 2020 which has 63 students.
Through a private Facebook Group, Lyons and Steel collected information on each student from each parent. The page was then opened up so people could adopt a student. Several gift boxes were created for each senior. All seniors will get a gift card from the Vintage Cow, a group photo and a bumper sticker along with other items that adopters wanted to include.
“For me I feel like they need some recognition,” says Lyons.
“They really haven’t had quite a bit and they have had a lot taken away from them so far. Moving forward it is uncertain for them. Their Prom was cancelled, still not sure how graduation is going to work out, how their awards are going to work out, things are being worked on, but we don’t know yet.”
Steel says some kids are really sad.
“They are missing out on even just the day to day with their friends at school, they were expecting to have three plus more months of time with their friends, some of them are really sad,” says Steel.
The 87 mile journey to each student’s home will take about 5-6 hours.
With the help of the Alexander, Darien and Bethany Fire Departments, along with Ashley and Calvin Whitmore’s trailer to transport the gift boxes, the caravan will parade through the school district that extends through areas of Wyoming county.
Students say they were surprised by the community’s efforts.
“I think this is pretty cool since everything got cancelled, I really appreciate it, I didn’t know any of this was happening until five minutes ago,” says Wesley Letourneau.
“I feel like it brings us closer and back together and makes us appreciate what we have and makes us look at more of the positives and just understand that we can always get back together in the future,” says Senior Kristen Harding.