GRANT AND ADAMS COUNTIES — Wahluke High School Principal Cody Marlow said the turnout was good on Friday night for the school’s Be the Light celebration, the third week in a row the high school has participated.

Schools around Washington have taken part in the Be the Light campaign to honor the 2020 senior class, with districts inviting community members out to honor the graduating class beginning at 8:20 p.m., or 20:20.

Some schools, such as Othello High School, are doing a one-time event as part of the campaign, while others such as Royal and Wahluke will continue until graduation in June.

Marlow said they first flipped on the lights at the football field in Mattawa on Friday, April 10. Marlow said the event has been fun to be a part of the first few weeks, and thinks it means a lot to their students.

“Man, the smiles on their faces are huge,” Marlow said. “It’s just good to see them, and it shows they’re not forgotten. And we do recognize that they’ve missed out on a ton of their senior year.”

Marlow said it’s difficult thinking about all of things these seniors are missing out on. Spring athletes won’t get that last stint on the field; FFA clubs will miss out on state conventions. Marlow said the school’s robotics team, which qualified for the STEM Nationals in Kentucky, won’t get the chance to attend that either.

Marlow said he and his two vice principals have been making calls to seniors to check on them and see how they’re doing. One of their main concerns right now, Marlow said, is whether or not they’d get to have a graduation ceremony.

Marlow said he assured the seniors they would have one but doesn’t know what that will look like just yet.

“Holy cow, they’ve been working their whole life for this, and that gets taken away,” Marlow said.” “It’s special for every senior, but I’ve really seen here in Mattawa that graduation is a super huge deal for a lot of our families, and extended families as well. We have a lot of first-time graduates, so it’s a big deal.”

The Be the Light celebration is just a small thing they’re able to do to honor their seniors, Marlow said, but the students appreciate it.

“Our teachers love it, community members love it,” Marlow said. “It is just that little bright light in the week to kind of smile and have a positive in all this COVID-19 thing.”

Marlow said the Wahluke staff has other ideas in the works for their seniors but said they were still coming together.

Othello High School held its one-time Be the Light celebration on Friday, April 17. Athletics announcer Tim Lawson read aloud the names of the seniors as the Othello Police Department led the march of students and families past the illuminated stadium.

Othello Athletic Director Jenny McCourtie said she communicated with other schools in the Central Washington Athletic Conference to see what they had planned after seeing the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s initial statement on the campaign.

McCourtie said different schools and districts had different things planned. McCourtie said she thinks the event was really successful, with everybody doing a good job of keeping their distance.

“It was hard not to go up and give the kids a high-five and a hug, try and keep that distance,” McCourtie said. “It was a successful event though, for sure.”

Heading into the celebration, McCourtie said she wasn’t sure what the emotions would be like with the students and community members coming out.

“Overall, I think I saw happiness, just kids pumped and excited to see each other,” McCourtie said. “Some of the vehicles were kind of decked out, they’d decorated them and it was awesome. The energy was high for sure.”

McCourtie said she’s also a member of the a newly formed Senior Activity Committee, which will continue to look for ways to celebrate some of these events that students are missing. One of the first small ideas was rolled out on Monday afternoon, with teachers and staff dressing up in Huskies gear to hand out cap and gown orders from Jostens.

For now, McCourtie said they’ve just got to wait and see what happens with the stay-at-home orders.

“We’re a really tight-knit community, and we really come together during hard times,” McCourtie said. “And I know Othello is really going to back each other up and do whatever we can for the kids.”