A wonderful tribute in Arlington, WA to celebrate our 2020 graduates!
Since the beginning of the lock down orders in late March, our high school seniors have had so many milestone life events slip by. The biggest event of all was the culmination of all their hard work with their education that began over twelve years ago: High School Graduation.
Senior proms, Senior camp outs, Senior parties, and graduation itself have been cancelled, postponed, or re-imaged in a virtual world for High School seniors across the nation. With two seniors ourselves, this has been one of the biggest blows to us personally during this pandemic.
Here in Arlington, the community rose up, voiced their opinions, and made an effort to recover anything possible for this amazing group of students as they prepare to take the next big step in their adult lives. Students, family members, and faculty all engaged in conversation over the past few months trying to create *something* to commemorate our seniors, while staying in alignment with state government and CDC guidelines.
The “virtual” graduation actually felt like a finish line for our students. The school faculty at Arlington High School did a tremendous job organizing and facilitating the event throughout the day. Especially impressive when you consider the fact that this has never been done before and they were fighting an uphill battle against everyone’s (well founded) emotions regarding everything. We look forward to seeing more at the end of the month when the completed video is ready for all to view!
The Grad Cruise (evening parade) was a community led event in the evening after the official graduation. It was a lot of fun! I had the wonderful job of driving grads around in a decorated car, honking, waving, and carrying on while Melissa Mae took all of the shots in the gallery below.
While it is hard to compete against a “real” graduation, the school and the community really came together to show their love for this very special group of individuals; our Arlington High School Class of 2020
