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In 55 years as a combined school district, Hills-Beaver Creek High School conducted its first parking lot commencement Friday.
The 17 seniors received their diplomas as they social distanced inside their vehicles and listened to commencement speakers.
Each vehicle drove by the front of the school where School Board Chairman Arlyn Gehrke handed students their diplomas through open windows.
Superintendent Todd Holthaus offered congratulatory elbow bumps through the passenger side windows.
“The challenges they have faced and persevering through those challenges to get to this moment, I am proud to say I have been associated with such a fine group,” Holthaus said. “They will be remembered well.”
According to senior Whitney Elbers, who addressed her classmates along with class valedictorian Kailey Rozeboom, the H-BC Class of 2020 went through their 13 years together quietly.
“This year will definitely be one to remember and will make great stories to tell our kids some day,” Elbers said. “Our class has been booed at a lot of pep fests for being too quiet during the victory cheer, but now we are victorious as we graduate.”
The coronavirus pandemic ended statewide, face-to-face student instruction in late March, and pre-K through 12th-grade students finished the last two months of the 2019-20 school year distance learning from home.
“Although staying at home became the new school day, it wasn’t as fun as we originally thought,” Rozeboom said.
“The first few days of quarantine felt like heaven — although as we gather here today we really wish we could go back. Quarantine made us realize how much we missed seeing each other every day, mainly because it was more fun to argue in person.”
Rozeboom also acknowledged one student who couldn’t be at the Friday event. Due to the global pandemic, Batuhan Al Kivrak returned to Izmir, Turkey, in March.
“It’s been awhile since H-BC had a foreign exchange student,” she said. “Sadly he was sent home early and Zoom meetings were just not the same.”
Salutatorian was Josie Bartels.
During the 35-minute ceremony, 38 senior scholarships were distributed, totaling $21,595.
The event was live-streamed on the school’s website, where as many as 75 tuned in via computer to watch the ceremony. The recorded event can be viewed through the H-BC Patriots Facebook site.