Due to the health concerns involving COVID-19, seniors this year won’t get to experience many of the traditional celebrations other classes will. But RHS parent Suzie Joseph has created a Facebook page to honor those graduating this year. There, parents, teachers and family can “adopt” a senior online and send them gifts. 

According to Joseph, a senior parent will get on the group and post about their kid, writing about their interests, passions and achievements. If the status at the top reads ‘not adopted’ others in the group can volunteer to adopt them and send a gift. 

“I’m just so excited it’s working the way it is. Half the time I’m walking around, smiling, I’m reading posts and I’m crying because you can’t help to feel like you know every single one of them, once you’ve read about them,” Joseph said. “I hope it can continue…everyone looks forward to being seniors on campus.” 

 Recently adopted senior Hailey McKay finds positivity in the opportunities that people in the community, such as Joseph, have created.

“Even though it’s not an ideal situation.. it’s such a cool thing that everyone is doing,” McKay said. “It’s crazy how creative people are getting. Like my first [senior adoption] was in this giant box and there was just stuff filled with it and I was “oh my gosh like thank you! I feel so loved by it.””

Joseph is also collaborating with a cupcake company called Icing On The Cupcake to create a unique RHS-themed cupcake in dedication to the seniors of the graduating class of 2020. 

“They’re doing one for Whitney and Rocklin, and I reached out to them to see if they could do one for our school,” Joseph said. “So I’ve been talking with someone there and she’s trying to work up an image so we can start circulating it. Ours will be similar to Whitney’s and Rocklin’s and will have our logo and a tiger paw on it.”

For RHS parent Kirsti Runkle, the Facebook page has helped bring light to a difficult time. 

“It’s very exciting and has been a lot of fun,” Runkle said, “I hope this makes something positive out of a bad situation.” 

McKay feels the facebook page has been a surprising, yet pleasant way to show some much-needed love to the class of 2020. 

“It’s been really hard on us, but this is a lot of love and I definitely was not expecting this much stuff, so it’s been pretty cool,” McKay said.