Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy (ELCA) has worked to make their graduating seniors feel a little more special during this time and are honoring their students in a special way.

  On Friday, April 24, ELCA’s faculty and staff placed 109 signs with each senior’s photo and name on their front campus, recognizing their graduating seniors.

  “We have just been trying to find a way to recognize and honor our seniors because they have worked so hard for so long,” said Ivey Davis, Student Council Sponsor and Spanish teacher.

  Davis got the idea to place signs from Facebook, where she saw a sign was placed in someone’s yard in celebration of a birthday.

  “Everything kind of went from there and we said, ‘We should do a big sign like that for our seniors,’” said Davis. “Once we started looking into it, we thought that we ought to make each  one of them a sign and put it out, put their picture on it.”

  Davis said that the signs were meant to honor the seniors but also allow them to come back to the school and take a photo of themselves with their signs.

  “We really wanted to do this so that the seniors could have a minute where they could come back to the school because they had their last day of high school and didn’t even realize it on that day,” said Davis. “This was a chance for them to be able to come back to the school and take a picture with their sign.”

  Since the signs were placed, a number of ELCA’s seniors have returned with their families to take photos with their signs.

  Kristopher Assing and his family recently went to visit his sign on ELCA’s front campus, stating that it “meant a lot” for the seniors to be recognized in that way.

  “It feels great knowing that even though we are almost gone, they still care about us,” said Kristopher.

  Although the efforts on the part of ELCA were meant to be a surprise for the seniors, Mitzi Assing, mother of Kristopher, said that placing signs on their front campus to honor seniors “was not surprising.”

  “Throughout his twelve years there, we feel the staff at ELCA have always tried their best to make students feel appreciated and valued as individuals.  At each grade level, [ELCA] provided Kris with many cherished school traditions. These events will stay with him as memories for the rest of his life,” said Mitzi. “Since the seniors in particular are missing some rites of passage during this crisis, I feel ELCA is trying to make the most of what is left of their last year and without compromising the safety of the public.”

  ELCA’s faculty also drove many miles to recognize their honor graduates.

  On Saturday, April 25, six separate groups containing a number of faculty split up to personally visit each of their 43 honor graduates at their houses to make the special announcement.

  “Almost all of our high school faculty came and we split into groups and we visited all 43 of those houses,” said Davis.

  They brought the students a special honor graduate sign, their honor stole, and cookies, in recognition of their achievements.

  The students had no idea that ELCA’s faculty members would be dropping by their house  to make the announcement.

  Hunter Hardeman was one of the 43 honor graduates visited by ELCA’s faculty.

  “Having several teachers and coaches come to my house to deliver my honor cords made me feel very special,” said Hunter.” I felt very honored that they would do that for me. They took time out of their day to come congratulate me on this achievement and I am very thankful.”

  Hunter’s parents, Scott and Jamie Hardeman, were surprised by the gesture of ELCA’s faculty members and were very touched by their thoughtfulness.

  “We had no idea that they were going to do that, and we were very surprised and very moved by it all! It made Hunter and the rest of our family feel very special for him to be celebrated that way,” said his parents. “What made it even more special was having some of his coaches and teachers and his senior mom show up to recognize him for all of his hard work for becoming an honor graduate. We are blessed to be a part of ELCA because it is more than just a school, it is a family where everyone genuinely cares and looks out for one another.”

  ELCA hopes to formally honor their graduates with a graduation ceremony in the future.