Students could be seen gathered together with blankets and bagels at the tennis courts for senior sunrise Sept. 8. After being canceled for several years due to COVID-19, senior sunrise has recently been brought back to Park. This tradition helps the class commemorate their achievements and be together outside of the classroom.
According to senior Ashley Reyes, who attended the sunrise with a few close friends, watching the sun rise as a class was a rite of passage.
“Senior sunrise was a nice event to celebrate our last year at the high school,” Reyes said. “There aren’t that many events for us to all be together and celebrate, so this was really special.”
Senior Fatima Ghandour said there are many benefits to having senior sunrise.
“It’s really nice to bring people together: to eat and enjoy a sunrise and just be in a place together that isn’t a classroom,” Ghandour said. “It feels like a community.”
Student council advisor Kaelyn Dagon said she recognized students were mostly with their own friends at the event, but was pleasantly surprised with the turnout.
“People were hanging out in their friend groups, but no matter what events you go to, that’s naturally going to happen,” Dagon said. “What was cool for me to see was the fact that all of them were willing to wake up that early in the morning as teenagers to come and share this space. Sharing that space together, even if you’re with your immediate friend group, is a beautiful thing.”
Reyes said despite enjoying spending time with the class, she would like to see the class bonding in spaces outside of school.
“I would like to see the class actually get together more outside of this event and not be as separated in their own groups,” Reyes said.
Dagon said because of COVID-19, many traditions died down, but Student Council and other staff members are trying to bring them back with the encouragement from the student body.
“Senior sunrise is (one of the traditions) that the community has asked to be brought back,” Dagon said. “A student reached out to us last year asking us to bring it back so that was the first year of it being held again. It was a little more low level and went alright, so this year we did it again and the Student Council started advertising a little bit earlier.”
Ghandour said in previous years she didn’t know if she wanted to go to the sunrise when she was a senior, but she changed her mind.
“When I was an underclassman I didn’t really want to go to the sunrise, but this year as I planned it with my friends it started to seem fun and like a good idea to go,” Ghandour said. “I ended up being glad that I went.”
Dagon said she hopes she will be organizing more events for the senior class and Student Council involvement is a big part of that.
“I highly encourage people to join Student Council so they can make these events happen for their class,” Dagon said. “If you want events to happen in the school we are more than happy to help make those events happen, you just have to join Student Council.”
