Gloucester News
"'Adopt' a Senior" Facebook Group Provides Solace for GHS Seniors
Community-led initiative has parents and community members providing gifts, recognition to students graduating amidst the pandemic.
Editor-in-Chief Eve Austin
With the Coronavirus Pandemic stopping most of society in its tracks for the past two months, many people have found small ways to create hope and fun. When the Gloucester School Board announced on March 13 that schools would be closed for the foreseeable future, seniors were saddled with the realisation that the past 13 years that they had spent working hard would not end with the ultimate payoff of walking across the stage on June sixth.
Many people within the community realised the detrimental situation and decided to do something about it. On April 24, founders and moderators Maya Olivis and Shannon McFarland Roane crated a Facebook group called, "'Adopt' a Gloucester High School Senior," with the goal of giving seniors something to look forward to amidst their turbulant graduating year.
On the group’s "about" page, their description states lovingly that, "We are extremely proud of our seniors!! During the disappointing time for them let’s make them feel special!! We are a community with a great big heart!!! Let’s share some love in this time of uncertainty!!!"
The main premise of the page is that different GHS seniors get posted onto the discussion page, usually by their parents, and then members of the Gloucester community have the opportunity to "adopt" them. In general, this means giving them gifts and well wishes that are meant to make their lack of a graduation just a little more bearable. Common gifts given are different snacks, gift cards, clothes, and trinkets, many of which are requested by the seniors themselves.
Generally the parents of the senior are the ones who post on the page, puting pictures of their student, and then waiting for someone to snatch them up (which often happens within minutes). There are exceptions to this rule though--there have been a several students who have taken the initiative and put themselves up.
Students are in fact welcomed and encouraged to put themselves on the page, as there are currently more eager community members than there are seniors up for adoption. In a page update, one of the moderators said, "Alright Gloucester peeps, I’m going to say it again. We have way more people that want to adopt than seniors available for adoption. We are missing over 200 seniors so if you know anyone that is missing from the page or you are friends with any Gloucester senior parent or seniors please click invite at the top of this page and invite them. If you know someone that is not on Facebook please just let us know and we can work something out. Maya and I [moderators] both want ALL Gloucester seniors to be included and as usual this incredible community has stepped up and wants to help." It is a heartwarming thought that so many members of the Gloucester community want to help.
It is not just graduation that has been taken by the coronavirus. Besides Prom, many students have had to celebrate their birthdays in isolation due to the continuing efforts to stop the spread of Covid 19. For most seniors, that means their 18th birthday would get glossed over. But the “Adopt a Senior” page, with all of 1,157 members, is making these students feel supported and loved by their communities.
"with everything going on, and with such an abrupt end to senior year," admits Senior adoptee Celeste Barber, "it was nice to be distracted by such a wonderful suprise!"
"I guess to me it just made me feel special," states senior Audrey Conner, that other people were recognizing our hard times and trying to come together to make us feel that specialness we all missed out on for the end of our senior year."
Adoptee Maria Lisi, who was approached by several community members looking to "adopt" her, remembers the swell of gratitude the experience brought her. "Being able to be adoted felt so special," she recalls, "it was very thoughtful for parents to reach out to us seniors who lost out on our last year of highschool."
"Being adopted was such a special experience for me," recalls Senior Bella Donoflio, "It showed me that even strangers, people I don't speak to, can sympathize with us and do something solely out of the kindness of their own heart. I never thought something such as the 'adopt a senior' page would ever exist. It's something so so generous; giving during a time that sickness is depriving everyone of a lot of things. Receiving the gifts made me feel really happy. It made me feel grateful, and it reminded me that no matter what happens, there is always good. There are always good people that want to make the world a better place, and a little happier."
"I can not thank the people who 'adopted' me enough," Donoflio continues, "they took the time to figure out the things that I like and even purchased them, followed by dropping the gifts off at my house. It made my day, and it made me proud of this community."
Overall the page has been an amazing way for the community to connect and rally throughout these trying times, and to help the seniors feel at least a little better about the predicament they've been placed in. Though we cannot connect physically, spreading this positivity through social media is a wonderful way to spend this unexpected break.
The page is private, but search “Adopt a Gloucester High School Senior” into Facebook and you can join the page. There are still members who are willing to offer their support, and seniors are still encourgaed to seek "adoption".