The Challenges of Planning Events for High School Grads During a Pandemic

SAINT JOHN—On February 26^th, Harbour View High School’s Graduating Class Executive hosted Winter Activities at the Lily Lake Pavilion, and although the Executive planned the event around the pandemic, it was not as much of a success as they hoped.

COVID-19 makes planning events difficult for the Grad Class Executive because, with little notice, the Saint John zone could return to a more restricted phase. “It’s a lot of planning A, B, C, D for every event, and executing whatever one we can at the time that we can,” said Abigail Campbell, one of the presidents of the Executive.

This year, students at Harbour View are split into two cohorts as a health and safety precaution, so depending on the day, only some students can participate in the events at the school. Because of this, the Executive is trying to have more online events, where grads can be engaged at home and at school. However, students certainly prefer in-person events, which is why the Grad Class hosted Winter Activities at Lily Lake.

The event was outdoors, so more people could attend, so long as they wore masks and socially distanced. To follow COVID-19 guidelines, only thirty people could skate on the lake at once, but if more students showed up, they could also slide on the hill beside the building and walk or snowshoe along the trails around the Pavilion and Rockwood Park. This event was easier to organize because it took place not long after it was planned. It is harder for the Executive to plan events further in the future because the state of the pandemic is harder to predict. Despite the Grad Class Executive’s careful consideration of the pandemic, the weather was what ruined the event.

Plenty of grads brought skates and sleds to Lily Lake, but the morning of the 26^th, the City of Saint John posted on its website that the lake was unsafe for skating. Sledding was also unsafe because the snow on the sliding hill was packed into solid ice, and sledding students couldn’t slow down before hitting a tree that stood nearby or hitting a shed that sat at the bottom of the hill.

Although the Lily Lake event went poorly, the Grad Class is planning as many events as they can. Students like Campbell want to enjoy their final year of high school. People look forward to prom and graduation from a very young age, so she understands why grads are frustrated that they don’t know anything about prom or graduation. However, she can’t divulge any information because any plan for those events relies on the virus’s prominence at the end of the school year.

“There always is that lingering feeling that we’re never going to get our grad year back, and that it’s never going to be normal,” said Campbell.

In the meantime, at least grads can look forward to more smaller events, like Winter Activities at Lily Lake, but without the weather hazards.