Celebrating the seniors of 2020
April and May are traditionally busy months for high school seniors and their parents as they prepare for graduation, but this year events that many students and their families spend a lifetime looking forward to have been canceled.
Siloam Springs Project Graduation is partnering with local businesses, including TC Screen Printing and Inuendos Design, to find alternative ways to help graduates celebrate their achievements.
During the average year, Project Graduation hosts an adult supervised and alcohol-free lockin style party for students on the night of graduation to encourage students to celebrate responsibly and to get the class together one last time, according to chairperson Sarah Losh. Now, with schools across the state closed
for in-person instruction for the rest of the year and graduation plans on hold, the event won’t be possible, she said.
Tyler Carroll, owner of TC Screen Printing, reached out to the organization with the idea of providing seniors with gift boxes, Losh said.
Local businesses are donating items to fill the boxes with swag for all 326 seniors, Carroll said. Losh and Carroll are keeping the contents a surprise for seniors, but they are hopeful the boxes will be ready to present to students on May 6, when students will be driving through the high school to pick up their graduation gowns and drop off their books. If not, the boxes will be mailed to students, Losh said.
Carroll said his business has supported the students academically and through sports throughout the years and wants to continue the support as they graduate.
“We recognized this year is not ending the way that most seniors hoped or thought it would,” Carroll said. “We looked back on our own senior years and just remember it being marked by lots of pomp and circumstance, and none of that is going to happen for these kids.”
Carroll is hopeful the boxes will show students the community is thinking of them, loves and cares for them and is excited about whatever comes next in their lives, whether it is college or the workplace, he said. Included in every box will be a letter that shows seniors some love but also lists the sponsors that contributed so that students can see the community support, Losh said.
“It’s a very close-knit class, a really unique class, and we are really proud to still be able to do something for them,” Losh said. “When all this is said and done, I hope they really, truly know how much they are loved.”
Project Graduation usually relies on fundraising from selling chicken dinners at the Dogwood Festival, which has been postponed, as well as a golf tournament in April, which had to be canceled, Losh said. With so many families hurting financially because of the current situation, they didn’t feel they could continue fundraising so the organization was thrilled to have local businesses step up and help, she said.
Shawn Hunter, owner of Inuendos Design, found a way to help graduates celebrate their achievements while supporting Project Graduation. She is printing yard signs for seniors in Siloam Springs, Gentry and Decatur and is selling them at cost. The more signs Hunter prints, the less they will cost her to make, so any proceeds she earns will be donated to Siloam Springs Project Graduation, she said.
As of Friday, Hunter had sold 30 signs to students in Siloam Springs, eight in Gentry, two in Decatur and one to a local John Brown University student, raising $160 to donate to Project Graduation.
“(Graduation) is a right of passage,” Hunter said. “That should be a huge deal for these students, even if they don’t grasp the significance. As parents it’s also a big deal because not only do we understand the effort and accomplishment for what it is, but we ourselves have sacrificed to enable them this opportunity.”
Customer Tony Vincent approached Hunter about the idea for his daughter Blake. When Vincent shared photos of the sign on social media, it attracted a lot of attention and more orders came pouring in.
Vincent said he has been waiting most of his life to see his daughter’s graduation and it’s strange to see the events canceled and postponed.
“I feel awful for her,” he said.
Graduation signs are a tradition in Mississippi, where his family lived before and still has many friends, and he wanted to bring them to Northwest Arkansas, he said.
Vincent also bought signs for a neighbor and his daughter’s boyfriend.
“I thought what a great way for kids to get some sort of recognition, even if it’s something as small as a yard sign,” he said.
Cindy Philpott of Gentry also bought a sign to celebrate her son Ben. She said Ben hasn’t said a lot about the disappointment of missing graduation events, but that missing the end of the baseball season has hit him especially hard.
Philpott purchased the sign to show support for Ben and his classmates, she said.
“They haven’t gotten do do anything formal or for recognition and I thought this was a great way to do that,” Philpott said. ‘When people drive by your house they can see a senior lives there and maybe say an extra prayer for them.”
Hunter is also hopeful the signs will encourage community support. Her business still has regular and personalized yard signs available for sale, she said.
“I encourage the folks in all three towns, if you see a senior sign in your neighbor’s yard, honk on your way by, or take a minute to send them a ‘good job’ card. This pandemic has taken so much from us already, let’s not let it have this too. Make it a big deal for the students, for the parents, because it is.”
To support Project Graduation, contact Sarah Losh at 479-599-9652 or sarah. lynn.losh@gmail.com.