“Congratulations Class of 2020 - The Year They Sent Us Home Early,” it said.
The streetlight pole banners erected by the village added a finishing touch to the presentation.
Each feather flag was different; unique like each of the students. Most had a Greenon logo but a few had the yellow and black insignia for the Global Impact Stem Academy, where some from the Greenon District had opted to complete their high school level education.
To illustrate their feather flag, some of the students chose a close up, others a full profile photo. Some graduates hugged a pet in their photos, while others chose spirit wear. Appropriately some of the students wore a cap and gown in their photos. A couple of the baseball players wore their uniforms and held a ball glove in their flag photo, to remember the senior season they didn’t get to play.
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At the corner, two flags remembered Jonathan Lee Suver and Conner Williams who passed away before graduation.
Visitors to the flags on Friday evening were disappointed to find that not all of the flags had been set up yet. Productions issues had the set up a bit behind schedule. It had been planned for the graduation date, but it was close.
According to organizer Shannon Webb, all but one of the ordered flags were up on Saturday. A couple had small errors and only one person decided to have hers reprinted to correct it. Hers should join the group by Monday.
Saturday and Sunday were big visitor days. It seemed like a constant stream of graduates, families, teachers, community members and just passersby walked the two legs of the display. I even saw one couple picnicking among them.
The Pruitt family walked the whole length of the display and ended up posing beside their graduate Tevin’s flag. His parents, Helen and Todd, and siblings, Tarynn and Tyler, were all smiles and enjoying the presentation.
Tevin said his biggest memory of Greenon will be all the laughter and fun they had. He plans to study financial business and may perhaps begin at Sinclair.
While I was there Dewayne McClellan stopped by to see his granddaughter Alexis Marie Parks’ flag and ended up walking the whole length of the display too. He said that it was impressive.
I was about to leave the park when a one woman arrived and walked the rows of flags and stopped to straighten poles, and adjust the alignment.
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It was Shannon Webb checking the flags for probably the tenth time that day. Shannon and her crew fought winds and storms off and on all weekend but managed to keep all the display intact.
For the last two months she and her team including Michelle Tyler and Pam Smith had worked to make sure they could contact all the local seniors from the Greenon District area. Some chose to not participate. However, anyone who wanted a flag got one even if they couldn’t afford it thanks to community sponsors listed on the congratulations banner.
“I wanted it to look like they are lined up to march for graduation,” she said,
“The graduation ceremony they didn’t get.”
The flags are scheduled to be up for approximately a week then graduates will be allowed to take them home.
According to Shannon, the community has been very supportive about the entire production. And more than one person has asked if it will be done again.
Perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of a tradition. Only time will tell.
For now the Settlers Park flag banner committee, the graduate gifting committee and the yard banner folks are exhausted from their jobs well done.
Thanks to all of you for making this odd graduation season special in its own way and reminding us how well our community works together.
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