‘Tis the season for grad festivities

Volunteers in the parking lot of Usherwood Office Technology in Williston scurried around with an enthusiasm that belied the hour – before 8 a.m. – and the day – Saturday, May 30.

A group of elves could use the spirit on display as an inspiration for spreading cheer.

This analogy wasn’t lost on those involved, either.

“It’s like Santa,” said Friends of CVU Chair Lisa Williams.

“God bless us all everyone,” said Rahn Fleming, channeling Tiny Tim. The Champlain Valley Union football coach and learning center tutor is – by popular demand of the seniors – this year’s CVU graduation speaker.

Then he jumped into his vehicle and headed out to spread commencement jolly.

The task that had gotten these volunteers out of bed early on a weekend was handing out personalized yard signs to others who would drive around to plant them in the yards of graduating Champlain Valley Union High seniors. Each yard sign was destined for that of the graduate whose name and picture were printed on it.

With 334 graduates, and those with multiple homes getting signs for both each, that meant more than 400 signs and quite a bit of logistical effort – further complicated by the need to keep the endeavor secret.

It was all done as a Saturday morning surprise for the graduating seniors and the kickoff of two weeks of graduation celebration.

Walking for graduation

The big finale is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Friday, June 12, at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction.

The graduation ceremony will be a drive-in. The audience will be in cars. However, it was announced on Tuesday that graduates will be allowed to walk across the stage when their names are called.

Masked graduates will get out of their vehicles in groups of 25 when it’s time for them to walk and gather in a staging area, with 6-foot distancing.

Each graduate will have an index card with their name on it, which a runner will take to the superintendent to read.

As a graduate walks across the stage, a picture of them will be displayed on a huge screen – “think jumbotron” said an email from CVU Principal Adam Bunting.

There will be two parking lots – a senior/stage lot and a satellite lot. Every graduate will get one ticket to the senior/stage lot. They can request another ticket to the satellite lot.

However, Bunting included this caveat in his email: “The fewer secondary tickets you use, the greater number of faculty and staff who can attend.”

They are working to have the ceremony broadcast over the FM band so graduates and those in the auto-dience can listen in their cars.

Get it? Auto-dience. You get it.

Plethora of passionate parents

About 10% of the yard signs didn’t come with the original shipment, said Williams. So, the volunteers had been scrambling even before Saturday.

Nonetheless, recruiting for the difficult mission was easy. Williams said the passion of parents, teachers and administrators for the project produced many more volunteers than they could use.

Parent Stew Jensen got the idea from a friend in Norwell, Mass., where they’d done yard signs for their high school graduates. Jensen like the idea but decided to step it up a notch and personalize the yard signs for CVU grads.

They formed committees for fundraising, distribution, public relations and printing.

About 300 additional “Class of 2020” supporter yard signs were printed. If you’d like to show your support for this year’s graduating class this way, a $10 donation is requested. To order a sign, call CVU or email Carol Fox at cfox@cvsdvt.org or call 482-7100.

The money raised goes to help pay for “goody” bags given to the graduates.

“We had 170 parents on our Facebook group and everybody wanted to help,” Williams said.