Goodbye to the Class of 2023

CHS prepares to say goodbye to the class of 2023 with heartfelt gifts as a tradition started by the PTO.

BY NAVI FIELDS

As the second semester of the 2022-23 school year nears its end, CHS has begun preparing to say goodbye to the class of 2023. While seniors are preparing to finish their final year of high school strong before graduating, the families of CHS are showing their appreciation with the “Celebrate a Senior” gift giving program created by the Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO).

The program originally started between 2020-21 during quarantine and online schooling, a time in which many students, seniors especially, felt robbed of what would be their last year at CHS.

PTO President Erika Levin came up with the idea after seeing friends of hers do a small gift exchange of their own. Levin then pitched a similar but bigger idea to Dean Marci and it only grew from there.

“It’s a nice little token of appreciation to say, ‘seniors, we love you, we see you, and we’re thinking of you,’ and the families loved doing it,” Levin said.

While the program originally had all high schools involved, it eventually centered around CHS, who had full participation from families.

At the beginning of the second semester, seniors fill out a form providing their likes and interests. Parents are then voluntarily matched with a senior and given a set budget for how much to spend on a gift. The parents are then given a time frame in which they drop off the gift at the senior’s home without being seen, referred to as a secret zebra. In the meantime, all seniors have to do is sit back and wait. During the wait, class of 2023 speculates on what they’d desire for their gifts and imagine what they could possibly be.

“I’m hoping for some books and some dice for Dungeons and Dragons,” Nadya Matish said.

Matish specifically hopes for books involving ancient architecture or literature, as it’s something she has a great interest in. Gabriel Semrau, however, has the opposite desire.

“I want it to be nothing that I’m picturing,” Semrau said.

The PTO will then put a slide in the form bulletin after each time period checking in with seniors to make sure they got their gift. In the case that a senior has not received a gift in the expected time frames they can reach out to the PTO. The goal is for no senior to be left out.

“I’m hoping for right now to have it be a permanent CHS event,” Levin said. “I just want them [seniors] to know that the parents and the community are thinking of them — all of their work for the past four years has not gone unseen.”

The most recent update for the program is adding a section for pronouns and preferred names to ensure that seniors are able to truly enjoy their gifts without worrying about being misrepresented.