While the pandemic has presented numerous challenges to high school students–especially the class of 2021, as many senior activities have been canceled–class committee officers are still hard at work, taking steps to remediate its financial state so they can finish off the senior year on a positive note.
After the loss of its $6,000 prom deposit, the Class of 2021 has been in a financial deficit, and raising money has been especially difficult this year as many of the usual fundraising options have been unavailable.
“Like many other clubs and organizations, our main fundraising events occurred when we had food fairs at school,” Class of 2021 treasurer Aileen Park said via Instagram. “The afterschool boba sales also added to our funds but due to COVID-19 we lost all these fundraising opportunities.”
It wasn’t until February that the class of 2021 was able to start planning and announcing actual events, such as Senior Sunset, Senior Replay and an in-person graduation on May 27. The first of these events, Senior Sunset, will take place on Saturday in the DBHS football stadium. The Senior Replay which will be held on April 23 will take place at the parking lot and include activities and slideshows at each section of the lot. In addition, both events will offer giveaways to attendees.
“I am looking forward to attending the Senior Sunset event,” senior Charlton Law said. “I think reconnecting with some friends again would be nice.”
In order to fund these, the class of 2021, with the help of USB, has partnered with local restaurants like Panera Bread and The Habit Burger Grill to hold fundraisers while receiving 20 percent of sales. The fundraising campaign, known as “March Madness,” has been taking place throughout the month. While the proceeds will fund a variety of events, the majority is being saved for the graduation ceremony at the end of the school year.
In addition to the restaurant fundraisers, the class committee got in touch with clubs such as UNICEF and Key Club to help secure funds. Both clubs contributed some of their current budget to the committee, and UNICEF president Trevor Hwee also hopes to organize a fundraiser to further help the senior class.
“We were not required to make these donations,” Hwee said via Instagram. “However, looking at this situation with the seniors having their final year of high school completely in distraught DBHS UNICEF wanted to do our part.”