The Lakeland High School Class of 2021 has not had the senior year they had hoped for. Like thousands of students across the country, the of their junior year and most of their senior year have been held remotely, or in hybrid form.
As springtime approached, and an upcoming Class of 2021 graduation, there was no promise of any celebration being allowed or prepared. Pat Byrnes, a parent of a Class of 21’ LHS graduate, started this effort, and writes, “We were already half way into February with nothing promised for our Seniors to have a memorable senior year. Parents of the Lakeland HS seniors got together to take action and try to give their upcoming graduates a positive send off. The Class of 2021 Let’s Get it Done was born.“Starting in February, the group was able to reach out to and sign up 193 of the 250 members of LHS Senior Class. LHS families have provided us with their contact info so their student can be the recipient of a monthly goody bag and be contacted regarding events/activities that we plan. We set up a sign up genius for volunteers. We spread our idea on facebook and we began filing our roles: Event’s Committee, Donations Committee, Delivery Committee , Twitter and Instagram accounts, and just today we have added a fundraising committee.“50 volunteers and parents have volunteered to help We had such enthusiasm that at that first zoom meeting we immediately had wonderful parents who donated, hershey kisses, starburst , hot chocolate, plastic goody bags and labels. We also had a parent create our logo We knew our goal to deliver our first goody bags on Sunday February 21st (2021) to our students whose parents signed up would be met. We faced some hurdles with all of the snow, but we were able to get our donations from each person to one central location and our Delivery chairs were able to pick up the items for their zone ( our zones were created by each of the 3 schools that feed into LHS) for their delivery committee members to pick up to deliver.
“The goal, with the help of donations to their gofundme page and venmo account, is to provide each of the 250 graduating students with a goody bag of items on the 21st (2021) of each month as well as a monthly activity and/or event. “On Sunday March 14, we will be holding our Pi Day at Frankie and Augie’Z restaurant, to hold a drive through pizza event for LHS Seniors. The drive through is from 2pm-4pm.
At the event on Sunday, each senior will receive a slice of pizza and a bottle of water. Random prizes will be awarded to Seniors as they drive through. And parents will be holding signs welcoming all.
“If we can get our story out it might garner the additional sign ups of the seniors we have not been able to reach as well as possibly motivate other communities to band together to do something for their high school seniors to make their senior year a little brighter,” said Pat Byrnes.
The group could use some additional funds to continue holding events and to try and make this upcoming graduation special.
The gofundmepage is –gofundme – https://gofund.me/29b3962b
The Venmo account – @Classof2021LetsGetitDone (confirm with 2957)
