RALEIGH COUNTY, WV (WOAY) – With social distancing still encouraged, graduation ceremonies aren’t what parents are used to and graduation parties are nearly impossible.
In Raleigh County, seniors missed out on prom and will likely miss out on a variety of graduation traditions.
“I was pretty disappointed,” said Shady Spring senior Ethan Morgan. “That’s kind of something we’ve been looking forward to pretty much our whole lives and it getting canceled was kind of a heartbreaker.”
While many seniors are disappointed, the community wasn’t going to let them feel forgotten. A Raleigh County native started an “Adopt-a-Senior” Facebook group to show seniors a little love.
“[The purpose is] to send them a card to say ‘hey, keep your head up,’ or ‘congratulations, we see you, even though you may not have a formal graduation like everyone else up-to-date has,’” said Leigh Morgan, Ethan’s mother and one of the first members of the group.
Parents and seniors can share information about the student to the page. Community members symbolically adopt a senior and send them letters of encouragement or graduation gifts.
“Since it’s such a hard time, everybody kind of coming together and really supporting us [is] really uplifting and it’s made everything a lot better,” said Ethan.
Thanks to the community, every local senior has been adopted at least once.
You can find the Facebook group here.
