Seniors celebrate at Project Graduation

By PAMELA GRANT

Cove Leader-Press

With Thursday’s graduation for Copperas Cove High School, the seniors of the class of 2017 have finished the first chapter of their life and are about to embark on their journey into adulthood, but first, the graduating teens got to enjoy one final party together thanks to Project Graduation.

Event coordinators estimated that about 350 seniors attended the celebration which began around 11 p.m. Thursday and ran until early Friday morning. Project Graduation is post-graduation party offered each year by a committee made up of parents and students as a safe environment for the seniors to celebrate.

“It gives them a safe environment to have fun and remember their school years with their fellow students. They can come and just have a good time. Alcohol’s not going to be brought here. Drugs aren’t going to be brought here,” said patrol officer John Oster. “They can reminisce and say their final goodbyes to some of their classmates before they start the next chapter of their lives.”

“It doesn’t feel real. It won’t feel read until I get my diploma. It hasn’t really set in,” said Rebecca Boyd about graduating. Boyd added that she thought the Project Graduation party was “pretty cool” because it helps prevent her and her fellow classmates from getting hurt. “I’m glad the parents, and teachers, and people in the community decided ‘Hey, let’s get together and throw this.’”

Boyd’s friend, Raina Williams, said her favorite part of Project Graduation was all the good food.

The party provided a variety of food from sandwiches, hotdogs, and pizza, to piles of candy.

With the added sugar in their system, the teens were happy to run around the school looking over the various activities. In the gym, they were treated to a variety of sports related activities. They could play basketball, volleyball, juggle, hula hoop, and more.

Project Graduation almost didn’t happen for the class of 2017. The budget for this year’s Project Graduation was, unfortunately, significantly lower than previous year’s celebrations. Current coordinators took over in February and therefore weren’t able to raise as much as they otherwise could have. Still, they did the best they could to make the event as enjoyable as possible with what they did have.

“It could have been a lot better, but we wanted to make sure that it wasn’t NOTHING that happened,” said Charles Lyons who helped coordinate the event. “It was either go for it, or not even do it. So, we decided to just go for it…It is what it is.”

They managed to gather prizes to be given away throughout the night, such as laptops and gift cards. Also featured were bingo competitions, a dance-off, and karaoke. A wide variety of board games were set up in various locations throughout the school. 

Still, many of the students were excited to get free stuff and have a final night of celebration.

“Other schools probably don’t do things like this. And to have one that does, I feel extremely blessed,” said Q’Tarius Owens. “I feel bittersweet [about graduating] because I remember freshman year like it was yesterday. Now I’ve graduated. I’m excited to get my life started, but there’s so many things I’m going to miss about my time in high school…Today’s my last night as a child.”