With caution around large gatherings, many high school seniors are missing traditional commencement ceremonies this year. The staff at the George Junior Republic Union Free School District wanted to find an alternative way to celebrate their graduates, and LeChase stepped in to help.
The company brought ceremonial gold shovels – normally used for groundbreakings – for the graduates to use for planting a class tree together on the school grounds. District Curriculum Coordinator Christina Sanford, whose husband Tom is a regional safety manager at LeChase, sent a note thanking the company.
“The students were very excited to use the gold shovels,” she wrote. “With the number of shovels you lent us, each students could use their own, making the planting of their tree an activity they could participate in one last time as a group.”
The school district, located near Ithaca, was designed to educate at-risk children. It serves about 190 students who live on the campus and 30 area students who attend the day school program. Before planting their class tree, the seniors were honored with a parade where staff and fellow students cheered them on, holding congratulatory banners and posters.
“This year was very hard for our students, who were thinking they would not have a graduation due to the pandemic,” Christina noted. “To end it on such a high note made their graduation a rewarding event for them, as well as for the district’s faculty, staff and administrators.”
