Stoughton 'Adopts' High School Seniors To Honor Them After Difficult Year
STOUGHTON (CBS) - After missing prom, graduation and spirit week, Stoughton High School senior Hannah Stanley wanted to make sure her fellow classmates still felt special through the coronavirus pandemic.
Stanley recently started the "Adopt a Stoughton High School Senior group" on Facebook and says it has taken off in a way she never could have imagined.
"I was like, I know I want everyone in Stoughton to feel this kind of connection with someone in their town. I didn't even think anyone would actually do it," Stanley told WBZ-TV.
Any high school senior who lives in Stoughton, or their parents, can post a picture of the senior on the page with a brief description of their hobbies, sports they play and their plans for school in the fall. Then, anyone in the community can adopt them.
Adopters can hand deliver or send seniors a letter, gift card, flowers or a balloon - anything to acknowledge their accomplishments.
"You know you're being thought of and I think that's exactly what any senior needs right now. To know that what we're going through is not normal and that people are thinking of us," Stanley said.
Karen and Neil Gibbons adopted senior Brendon Buckley. Neil, who is in eighth grade, is also missing out on his middle school graduation this year. The two were in Boy Scouts together for years and Karen Gibbons says her son has always looked up to Brendon, so Neil put together a basket with homemade cookies, balloons and a personal note for the senior.
"It makes me feel really good to make him feel good," Neil Gibbons told WBZ.
"Just that fact that someone is thinking about me and just getting some sort of recognition for graduating and completing all those years of school, it's nice," Buckley said.
Stanley said every senior in the town of Stoughton has been adopted, but seniors can be adopted more than once and adopters can pick multiple seniors.
For more information on how to adopt a senior, visit the Facebook page.
