LYNN — Among the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the social distancing rules and regulations that followed, were high school seniors.
The boys and girls set to graduate this month and in June didn’t just lose their respective ceremonies. They lost proms, class trips, and their chance to say one last “goodbye” to their childhood years.
So, a group of St. Mary’s parents found a way to honor their sons and daughters Wednesday evening, with a rolling parade through Lynn, ending with an “around-the-block” drive-by at the St. Mary’s campus.
“Graduations are exciting and celebratory times,” said Attorney Marnie Moore, whose daughter Caroline is one of the graduates. Moore organized the parade of 43 cars with parents and graduates.
“You see a lot of these birthday parties with fire trucks and honking horns and sirens,” she said. “So we figured ‘why not do something like a rolling rally, or a rolling parade. (Wednesday) would have been their day. They’d be walking across the stage, instead of sitting in cars, honking a horn.”
What prompted this was Moore’s realization that “the kids understood the value of that moment. They wanted a graduation. If they didn’t get a prom, they kind of got it.
“I find that an interesting thing,” she said. “You only get one high school graduation. It’s that first adulthood transition. And these kids have not been able to have that moment.”
Moore said the city authorities were happy to accommodate the parents. But since the parade was not a school-sponsored event, there was no mass congregation on the property of the school or church at its conclusion.
“Basically,” she said, “we drove around the school and went home.”
