DEAR EDITOR:

I am so happy to see many communities acknowledging their high school seniors with an outpouring of love. For example, Boardman recently placed signs in the yards of its senior class students. This small kindness goes a long way for these kids who have lost so much due to the social limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senior year is a time that sparks change and signifies great endings and great beginnings. It signifies the end of youthful carefree days, the end of seeing your classmates every day, the end of being the envied senior. It also brings a kickoff to adulthood, where responsibilities take root and new roads are forged toward goals and dreams! Our American culture honors high school seniors and characterizes senior year as “the best times of our lives” with memories that will be cherished forever.

That being said, I believe a yard sign is not enough.

Let these small signs of appreciation be a start, but not an end. I encourage each community to do more. Let this be the beginning of something great to ramp up to the end of their K-12 school days. These kids still have a month or more of class time to complete. Certainly, we can put our heads together to help build opportunities to create memories they can cherish forever.

I’m not suggesting activity that puts them, their families or our communities at risk. I am suggesting we find virtual opportunities or events that allow safe social distancing. We also can plan in-person events to be held at a future date, when large-group activity can be safe. For example, their spring sports season is gone, but why not begin a conversation to see if exhibition games or a community game or scrimmage can be organized when safe to do so? Prom, signing days and graduation ceremonies are also rites of passage that we can reschedule or recreate.

A sign in a yard is a nice token of appreciation. All I am asking is don’t let that sign signify a final goodbye. Of all the things we could have raised money for, a sign is the least we can do. Let’s do more.

At the end of the 1925 poem, “The Hollow Men” by T.S. Eliot, is this line: ”This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.” Let’s come together for our kids to help them go out with a bang!

TRACIE BALENTINE

Boardm