EF seniors to hold first graduates’ car parade

By CHRISTINE HAINES

chaines@yourmvi.com

It’s not the graduation they expected, but the Elizabeth Forward Class of 2020 is well on its way to making the best of a difficult situation.

While a traditional graduation ceremony isn’t in the cards this year, students will get a bit of closure by walking across the auditorium stage in cap and gown to receive diplomas in front of their family members. A few days later, they will start a tradition of their own: the graduates’ car parade.

The parade was the idea of one of the parents, Lisa McCorkle, whose daughter, A.J., is graduating this year. It will be held June 6, starting at 11 a.m., and will wind through all the communities in the district.

“It’s going to be a long parade, at least an hour or an hour and a half long,” McCorkle said. “These kids came into the world during 9/11 and they are going through their next right of passage during a pandemic. I wanted to have a great send-off.”

McCorkle has been working on parade plans for the past several weeks along with senior class officers, class sponsor Alana Wieclaw, high school principal Michael Rouch and local police and fire officials.

The fire departments in the district will be part of the parade, escorting cars containing the 165 graduates.

“I reached out to them not only to be part of the parade, but to help with routing it,” McCorkle said. “I had the five fire chiefs look at the route to make sure it could be done.”

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