Community honors seniors on the court square
After talking to Missy Adkins-Mossman who mentioned other communities were honoring the class of 2020 by placing pictures of graduating seniors in public places, Tiffany Swigert from the Coshocton Port Authority thought it would be cool to place all the seniors pictures downtown. “I was super excited. I think it is a fantastic idea to honor the schools in each district. It’s been a very challenging senior year,” she said.
This was an idea very near and dear to Swigert’s heart because her oldest son Briar Swigert is a member of the graduating class at CHS.
“It’s an emotional time. This is a way for the community to show the kids love. Some of them may come back and be contributors to our community. I am really thrilled,” she said.
Swigert reached out to the teachers who were working on their yearbooks to get the photographs and contacted Mayor Mark Mills. The mayor and Kirby Hasseman took the project from there.
Hasseman who owns Hasseman Marketing and Communications made the banners.
“The mayor was adamant that we do this for the seniors,” Hasseman said. “This is a weird time. We did some brainstorming on how to celebrate our seniors and found the funding. No tax dollars were involved. It’s a great example from the leaders in our community coming together for our kids. We have an in-house designer. This is what we do as a company. We just do what we do. I’m proud to be a part of it. We appreciate all the hard work of the local leaders to make it happen. Congratulations to all the seniors. We’re excited for them.”
“We had the funding in about three minutes,” Mills said. “The Charles E. and Dorothy S. Bechtol fund, Bob Pell from the Coshocton Foundation, the Kiwanis of Coshocton and other contributors. I wish I could fund everything this easy. The collaborative happened very fast, Hasseman volunteered, the Bechtols, Kiwanis members and the county and city guys put the signs up.
“This has definitely been a monumental year,” Mills said. “A year of; who knows. For this class it’s happening right now, right out of the gate. It’s one of those life events that you are not prepared for, but you do your best to stay positive. The seniors lost a lot but gained a life lesson of how fast things can change. The grads understand that anything can happen and it’s not what happens it’s how you react. This crisis brought them more attention than any other class.”
Mills said he feels sentimental about this class because this is his 25th high school anniversary. “It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was roaming the halls of Coshocton High School,” he said. “We’ve all been there. Let’s get through it. Life is life. It is an achievement.”
Category: Education
