So COVID19 has destroyed your plans to make eighth-graders feel special? Your whole staff is wearing masks and avoiding hugs, but you still want to celebrate your eighth-grade students as they go up to the high school?
Not to worry! This helpful blog post will show you how to make a meaningful Drive-Through ceremony that’s fun, easy, and still celebrates students during the Quarantine.
The drive-through promotion ceremony for Lone Hill Middle School went very well: 281 families showed up with 362 cars, filling up the whole two hours. If our success can be shared with y’all, even better.
To get in the mood, play this video as you read:
Prep
First, I planned a route.
This was shared with families and community members multiple times via email, posted on the school website, and even relayed in video form, so there was no doubt about “Where do I go?”
Next, I made a committee composed of staff and parents, and we planned how to make the ceremony safe, fun, and a celebration. We came up with this:
Order of Operations
Cars turn onto the south driveway, the student’s name clearly printed on the passenger’s side of the windshield. Along the driveway (red station) are the safety guidelines:
- Stay in your car
- Keep your windows up
- Masks only needed if the windows are down
“Wow, Vaudrey. You’re really going to kick people out if they roll down their windows to wave at their favorite teacher?”
I posted the safety expectations, but we were unwilling to enforce conduct at a parade, so nobody was reprimanded and everyone was safe.
Even the family who arrived with their 8th-grader seated on the back of the convertible.
Like a state senator during election year.
After the rules area (red station), cars proceeded to the blue station, where two staff took down student names onto a shared Google Doc. That Doc served as the parade order, and was viewable by the Announcing Station (DJ Kyle) and the Certificate Station at the end.
Cars then turned north through the volleyball courts toward an enormous balloon arch and our favorite local DJ playing Pomp and Circumstance.
As the car approached the arch, one of the counselors announced the student’s name off the shared Doc (which you can hear on video). On the passenger’s side, most of our staff lined up in masks, blew bubbles, rang cowbells, and some even made signs (that we strung up the basketball hoops using some rock-climbing gear).
After the Cheer Section, cars turned west again toward the Distribution Station, where the team had checked the shared Doc to see which student was approaching next, then prepared that student’s certificate and awards. (It didn’t surprise me that Alicia volunteered for that station so she could address each student and shout “Congratulations!” through a cracked car window. I had to remind her to drink water as she sprinted, red-faced and smiling behind her mask, from car to car.)
Then the family turned right out of the staff parking lot onto Covina Blvd and drove off toward summer (at least until Victory Lap next week, where they will return their textbooks and clean out the PE locker).
Parade Maintenance
Every twenty minutes, we took a break so teachers could hydrate, sit down, and prevent “cheer fatigue.” I stood in the bottom south-east corner of the map with my radio, pausing cars and telling them, “We’re taking a two minute rest, so the staff can be fresh when they cheer for you.” Every family was fine with that, none complained.
Additionally, I took laps back and forth from my cooler and offered waters and sunscreen to staff. The new principal also showed up with ice cream, which is a definite way to buy my affection. More than half of them stayed late to pack up tables and EZ-up shades and scraps of balloons before crawling, exhausted and sweaty into our cars to go home for a cold beverage.
Next Year
During the committee discussion, we had concerns about our families from the local RV park and foster home. “What if families don’t have cars?”
We aren’t the only ones worried about this:
Drive thru graduations are cringey and classist.
— Kaitlyn D. Fitzpatrick 🍁 (@kaitlyndfitz) June 12, 2020
We had a full plan in-place for families who wanted to walk the route, but I wish we’d have been more intentional about assuring them it was encouraged.
We had let our fear of COVID19 prevent us from being public about encouraging “walkers.”
Solution: Next year, we should reach out to families that live in those areas to ask if they’re coming, assuring them that they’re welcome whether or not they actually drive. An RSVP would let us know who isn’t planning to come, and we could reach out to them personally.
Initially, we had planned to check student names against our master list and give stickers or decals for any honors they had earned (CJSF, Lion of the Year, 4.0 GPA), but we scrapped the idea. Decorating cars with honor cords or stickers or whatever might piss off some parents. Plus, it would create a bottleneck as each student’s name is checked against a huge list to see which honors they get.
Solution: Mail the decorations home a week before, with instructions “Include this honor on your car when you drive through!”
Also, I had intended to call the local papers that morning to invite them to drive through, but I was more busy with prep than I thought, and it just didn’t happen.
Solution: Call them a few days before, silly!
The only issue we had that day was toward the end of the two hours, a little bit of traffic making the right turn out of the parking lot onto Covina Blvd. We weren’t able to get Sheriff’s Deputies to direct traffic due to the Black Lives Matter protests.
Solution: Have a deputy on Covina Blvd to keep traffic moving.
It was a great time, and I am super proud of how smoothly it went. If you want to try that with your school, feel free to email or tweet me with your questions.
~Matt “CongratulationsThanksForComingWindowsUpPlease” Vaudrey
UPDATE 29 June 2020: For the Video Promotion (which was posted a few hours before the Drive-Through, I should have added subtitles in Spanish. The emails auto-translated, but I wish I’d have included subtitulos en español para la gente que no leen el ingés.