Grads celebrate modified safe and sober event
Graduates of Fortuna and East high schools this year were given a very special and unique safe and sober party. The fun included a scavenger hunt Friday night after graduation, a prize giveaway at 1:30 a.m., and a drive-thru breakfast Saturday morning.
The Fortuna High School Safe and Sober Committee felt that many things had been taken away from the graduating seniors because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s party was planned to be as much of a celebration as usual but within social distancing guidelines.
The scavenger hunt piece of the party began at 11 p.m. when students gathered in the parking lot of Fortuna business Las Cazuelas. There, students picked up rules and riddles. The riddles were clues for the 10 locations within the city where students would go to earn a ticket for the prize drawing. Riddles included “Check yourself in here before you wreck yourself and get ‘aligned’ here” and “This place is where Safe and Sober 2020 raised the most amount of money.”
“Tickets were collected at 1:30 a.m. at the Gene Lucas Community Center parking lot and prizes were given out,” Safe and Sober Committee member Brian Gonzalez said. “It was a fun and successful night,” he added.
He also extended a special note of appreciation for the assistance of the Fortuna Police Department, and to the Gene Lucas Community Center.
Even with the rain, there was a good turnout of graduates participating in a drive-thru breakfast, also in the parking lot of the Gene Lucas Community Center. The Saturday morning drivethru meal included breakfast burritos, specialty flavored coffee, and other beverages. The meal was catered by Moonlight Catering, and included donations from Dutch Bros Coffee. At the breakfast, all graduating seniors were also given a goodie bag of stickers, Hydroflasks, and candy.
Another unique way of honoring the graduates was the placement of yard signs in the medians of Fortuna Boulevard. The Safe and Sober
Committee paid for the yard signs, one for each Fortuna and East high schools graduating senior.
“Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible,” Gonzalez said, and giving a shout out to the other Safe and Sober Committee members he added, “We had a diverse board with different ideas and we worked well together. I’m very proud of the outcome and the hard work from both the students and the parents.”
This was the 35th year of a Safe and Sober celebration for graduating seniors in Fortuna.