KENNEBUNK – June 5 is graduation day for the Kennebunk High School class of 2022. There will be photos, hugs, and smiles, and maybe a tear. Graduates will receive their diplomas and step out into the world.
There are several upcoming fundraisers planned for Kennebunk High School’s Project Graduation. Dan King photo
And they are looking forward to a get together, a class blast: Project Graduation – that safe grad event that provides maximum fun to students and minimal worry to families.
Parents, school advisors and students have been raising funds for Project Graduation for a couple of years, but with COVID-19 very much a presence, it has not been easy. Now it is crunch time, with fundraising events through May.
“This has been an unprecedented four years for our graduating seniors of 2022,” said Robin Vaughan, faculty advisor for the class. Despite the challenges, she said she loves working with the students.
One fundraiser, an online auction offering an array of 64 items – from meals at local restaurants to spa gift certificates and more – winds down April 25. For a list of auction items, visit www.biddingowl.com/Auction/home.cfm?auctionID=29944.
On Saturday, April 23, Aroma Joe’s in Kennebunk (Route 1 and Ross Road) will donate $1 to Project Graduation for every Rush drink sold. A spring flower fundraiser with Estabrook’s in Kennebunk remains open through April 30.
And then there are pancakes.
“Arundel Lodge No. 76, A.F. &. A.M, has graciously offered us a pancake breakfast fundraiser where all the proceeds go to the class of 2022 Project Graduation,” said Vaughan. “Whatever earnings we make they will match.”
Breakfast is $8; children younger than 6 eat free. The pancake breakfast is 8 to 11:30 a.m., Saturday, May 7, at the lodge, 12 North St., Kennebunkport.
Tami York, mother of graduating senior David York, said everyone involved has worked hard so that about 180 seniors may attend Project Graduation. Seniors have been doing their bit, parking cars at Prelude, selling glow sticks at football games, doing what they can, she said.
Vaughan said she has learned a lot from the class of 2022.
“I am continuously amazed, stunned, surprised, fascinated, and in awe of these soon-to-be graduates,” she said. “I look back at all the adversity, the transitions and huge challenges these students had to overcome, and I am still in disbelief at how they handled it all. These past four years I have watched these students support each other, support the staff at KHS, and handle our COVID “norm” of isolation with respect, empathy and much class.”
Students say Project Graduation will be fun, and bring seniors together.
“While school is practically back to what we know as normal, I feel a lot of us students have forgotten what a united class feels like,” said senior Hannah Beaupre. “We haven’t had an assembly since our freshman year back in 2018-2019 … Project Grad will hopefully be an event where we can get that sense of class unity again with people we have essentially grown up with, and where we can forget the feeling of just going through the motions like we have the past two years.”
Senior Sofie Dumas said the pandemic changed everything.
“We hope (the pancake breakfast) will bring the community and senior class together in order to support our project graduation,” said Dumas. “Our high school experience was definitely different, but project grad will serve as a fun celebration for all of the hard work we have put into school during such a challenging time.”
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
