Senior Surprise
Overlake senior year is usually filled with prom, senior skip day, graduation, and other events to commemorate an Overlake career to be proud of. However, thanks to the stay at home orders, the Overlake class of 2020 has had a much different experience. This got some folks thinking, how can we be creative in the ways we recognize our seniors?
When Gerald Buhaly asked Meghan Waddle to help brainstorm ways to recognize our seniors, she jumped right in even while still on family leave to help come up with ideas. Waddle sat down (virtually) with Becky Silliman, MS/US Coordinator, and Senior Anna D. to come up with ways to honor the class of 2020.
This week, on Thursday, 17 volunteers dropped off personalized swag bags to each senior’s house. Included in the bags were fun owl stickers, a senior t-shirt, personalized letter, and yard sign for each senior. Some seniors were home to receive the packages in person and immediately started proudly staking their signs in the yard.
Parent of a senior, as well as one of the volunteers, Janelle Shuey commented, "It was so much fun to ring the doorbell and wait for the kids to come out on the porch and see their surprise! I saw all my kids and their parents. They smiled, we shared some laughs, and they were all very thankful for Overlake's thoughtful gesture. My daughter Jenna loved it and felt connected to Overlake and was pleased they thought of her."
“We just wanted something to make the seniors smile and put a little more goodwill back in their day,” said Waddle.
The main goals of these surprise drop-offs are to let the seniors know that they are not forgotten and, as the yard sign says, we’re #Allinthistogether. Waddle said bluntly, “It’s a pretty big bummer of a spring for them, but we want them to know they have impacted the school in so many ways and we’re proud of them.”
Waddle has loved the opportunity to check back in with Overlake while on leave, knowing that the faculty and staff are working incredibly hard to make the experience as rich as possible for the students. Since this will be her last year at Overlake and with this class she was happy to jump in and help out where she can. “I’ve been here for 9 years and watched this class grow. It started with watching them as athletes when I was in the athletics department and now they’re full grown seniors. They’re funny, they’re quirky, and I just have so much love for them,” said Waddle.
Assembling all the bags in her home while wearing protective gear, Silliman commented on how much fun it was to be able to put these bags together and send some cheer to these students. “Not only are they a special class, but they’re enduring a really frightening time. The more we can do to reach out and embrace them as a community, the better,” Silliman said. She lined up all the bags outside her house for volunteers to come safely pick them up and deliver to families.
Pulling ideas from other schools, parents, faculty, and the Internet, the team has some other fun surprises in the works, so stay tuned for other fun things to come this spring.
