Engines were humming on Sunday at three local high schools as cars lined up to celebrate hundreds of seniors forced to finish their final semesters in quarantine.
Students from Brandywine (125), Mt. Pleasant (240) and Concord (286) rode along with parents, friends and family waving from passenger seats and sometimes out of a sunroof or pickup truck.
The three Brandywine District schools all plan formal graduations – and proms – in July, but parade organizers didn’t want to wait that long to do something special for the seniors.
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Vehicles were snazzed up with school colors and graduates were decked out in the traditional caps and gowns. Families and businesses got into the fun, putting up signs, banners and balloons along the routes, cheering on the grads.
Mount Pleasant came first on a beautiful late spring Sunday afternoon, kicking off their parade at noon, which followed the school’s traditional homecoming parade route, ending at the school.
Concord went next at 2 pm, caravanning down Shipley Road towards Naamans, turning right on Naamans, left on Ebright and ending at the school.
Brandywine went last at 4 pm, its parade honking its way from Lombardy Elementary down Foulk Road to the school.
Concord senior Devon Kylie said she thought the parade was a fun and memorable way to celebrate and bring the class together – at a safe distance – for the first time in months.
“I think this is great because not many other schools have done this,” she said.
Kylie’s classmate, Ruby Knipe echoed those sentiments.
“Its so nice just seeing all the faces and seeing how we’ve all grown since freshman year. I think it’s [this year’s graduation] going to be something that’s going to be remembered. Everyone’s going to look back at class of 2020 and see what we had to go through and see what we did and how we did it.”
