The COVID-19 outbreak has put a serious damper on high school graduations nationwide (if it hasn’t canceled them altogether).
Here are some innovative options parents have this year for helping their high school seniors celebrate their achievement in a way that won’t put anyone’s health at risk:
STAGE A VIRTUAL PARTY: The virus outbreak has made online group get-togethers the new, safer way to connect. Zoom, Skype, Facebook Life and FaceTime (for Apple devices) are the best-known tools for getting your grad’s buddies together for a Class of 2020 blowout. But you can also live-stream on Instagram, and even YouTube (two live streams at once!). Make sure the kids spread the word though ALL of their social media channels (especially Snapchat). Draft an agenda that’s not so rigid the party goes flat, but not so loose it gets out of control. To keep the party inclusive, designate several students to pass the baton as emcee. And be sure to follow up afterward with links to where people can watch, listen to or add to the party.
GIVE THEM A (YARD) SIGN: The website proudofmygrad.com offers non-generic yard signs for your non-generic teen. The colorful, 18-by-24-inch signs come with the name and color scheme of your grad’s high school, and their class year. You then personalize it with their name or a short message up to 14 characters (“Luv’ ya, Allie!”). Less than $25, the signs arrive within a week from when the order is place. The site has more than 7,300 public and private high schools in the 48 contiguous states loaded into its database. You can order a sign at a discount for a family who can’t afford them. Meanwhile, if your grad and their friends choose to keep their signs, they’ll save on decorations for their future class reunions.
RECORD A CLASS PODCAST: Don’t know anyone who does podcasts for a living? Buzzsprout.com can help any parent host, then post, a class podcast, regardless of their experience with the medium. Get a variety of seniors to call in to offer their senior year stories, add in some cool sound effects, then make that year-end review available for years to come on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and more.
CRAFT A CLASS STORY ONLINE: Create a Class of 2020 Story page on Instagram or Facebook. Encourage graduates to populate it with their favorite reminiscences of their years in high school, their hopes and dreams post-graduation and the songs, videos and pop culture trends popular during their year. Add in the lyrics to the school’s alma mater, photos of the school itself, and comments from their teachers, coaches and administrators and you have an evergreen memory page they can return to in the years ahead. Those Instagram stores will vanish quickly, though, so you may want to recruit people to re-populate the page until everyone heads off to their post-graduation adventure!
