Boulder High and Fairview seniors were treated like celebrities Sunday as they took to the streets around their schools in car parades to mark the end of high school.
The students leaned out car windows and sun roofs or rode in the back of trucks festooned with streamers and balloons as families cheered, ringing cow bells, waving homemade signs and yelling encouragement.
“I love all the people out being so supportive,” said Mary Beth Lynch, whose son Max Lynch is a graduating senior at Boulder High. “Up until now, it has felt kind of blah. This is pretty amazing. It’s almost more excitement than a regular graduation day.”
The Boulder Valley School District is tentatively planning graduation ceremonies the week of July 20, delaying graduations in the hope that restrictions will have loosened enough to allow in-person ceremonies.
With this weekend’s planned graduation ceremonies postponed, several area high schools held senior car parades instead. For their parade, Boulder High grads donned both their caps and gowns. Fairview students wore senior shirts and caps — getting permission, for the first time, to decorate their mortarboards.
Fairview graduating senior Genevieve Robinson called the parade “a good way to end the year.”
“Everybody can be together and celebrate,” she said.
Alex Loran, a Boulder High graduating senior, described the parade as an “unconventional” way to mark the day.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be this big,” she said. “It’s pretty cool to see all our support. It’s still a celebration.”
Added friend and fellow graduating senior J.D. Garcia, “This is giving us some closure to our senior year, which is really nice.”
Families said they were glad to have an opportunity to celebrate their seniors, who saw so many milestone events canceled amid the coronavirus shutdowns. They lost prom, end-of-year awards ceremonies, trips, sports and just spending time with teachers and friends as the school year ended.
“We’re trying to make this day as special as possible,” said Boulder High parent Kristy McGowan, whose son Lewis McGowan is a graduating senior.
Pat Felt, whose son Peter Felt is graduating from Fairview High, came to the parade armed with a squirt gun, gleefully dousing the seniors as they went by.
“Us parents are having more fun than the kids are,” she said. “It’s just as important to us as it is to the kids. We all need fun.”
Elspeth Sweeney, a mentor with the “I Have a Dream” Foundation of Boulder County, came out Sunday to support the graduating senior she had mentored since third grade, Citlali Garcia.
“This is a big accomplishment,” Sweeney said. “It’s so fun to be out here.”
Rose Lupinacci, an assistant principal at Fairview, said the parade was even more emotional than a traditional graduation ceremony.
“This is so much more meaningful,” she said. “What a wonderful way to have the whole world honor the seniors.”
