Graduates in Ephrata celebrate, ‘make history’

EPHRATA — It was a strange end to a strange school year.

As cars, trucks and SUVs — along with one small tour bus and a souped-up golf cart — gathered in the gravel parking lot of Ephrata’s GracePoint Church on Friday afternoon, members of the Ephrata High School class of 2020 shared one main sentiment about their drive-in graduation.

“It is weird, it is so different,” said Alexis Helman as she stood next to a brightly decorated SUV. “I’m not used to this.”

Still, she put a positive spin on what has been a strange school year since Gov. Jay Inslee ordered schools closed across the state on March 17.

“But you’ve got to make history somehow,” said Helman. “And at least I’m in it!”

She intends to attend Eastern Washington University and eventually become a physical therapist.

It was a very different kind of graduation the Ephrata School District staged on Friday. Rather than gather in the high school stadium, parents were asked to drive their cars to the GracePoint parking lot and then proceed slowly down C Street to the district’s large softball and soccer fields, where drivers would park in front of an ad-hoc stage and students would come out eight or 10 at a time, walk across the stage and be recognized.

“Every parent will have a front row seat,” said EHS Principal Aaron Cummings.

When one group was done, another group of eight or 10 cars would pull forward until everyone participating got recognized.

Of the 191 seniors in the EHS Class of 2020, school officials said 168 participated, and it took about three hours to get everyone through.

“We have the other graduation dialed in. This one, not so much,” Cummings said. “But we’re going to get through it and celebrate the kids and their successes and their accomplishments.”

In addition to the drive-in ceremony, banners of all the graduating seniors were hung down Basin Street and each student will get a link to an online “virtual graduation” service.

Cummings said the photos of the seniors and the virtual graduation will likely continue in future years.

“It was a lot of work, but it was really important,” he said.

Senior Randi Montano used the same word a lot of graduates used to describe their COVID-19-curtailed senior year that saw the cancellation of so many things, like spring sports and prom.

“It was stressful having to adapt to online learning and not getting a walking ceremony,” said Montano, who intends to study psychology at EWU. “I was looking forward to that. It’s a buildup for 13 years.”

“It’s not ideal,” said senior Ean Boyd, whose father rented a six-person golf cart and decked it out with banners and balloons. “But it’s turning out better than I expected it to be.”

Boyd said he plans on taking next year off, and has no idea what he intends to study when he eventually goes back to school at either Big Bend Community College or Spokane Falls Community College.

Boyd’s father, Steve, said he rented the giant golf cart, which he dubbed “The Boydmobile,” especially for the occasion.

“We’ve got a Suburban, but with seven of us, you can’t see. So this is about as open a vehicle as we could come up with,” he said.

“We kinda had to get special permission,” the elder Boyd added. “They didn’t say no, and they didn’t say yes.”

While the graduation was limited to family members in a vehicle, a few spectators leaned against a chain-link fence to cheer on their favorite young people.

“It’s tough to watch,” said Sara Good, who came to watch senior Katey Stewart, who has enlisted in the U.S. Army, walk across the stage. “I’m just very happy to be here to congratulate her, and I love seeing the rest of the students being able to get together like this.”

A few students also said even with the stress and the weirdness, they learned something important about life this year.

“It’s very difficult and emotional,” said senior Jessie Kehn, who plans to study at BBCC this fall with an eye toward eventually becoming a social worker. “I feel like it has changed my perspective about things. I’m more grateful for what I have than when this all started.”

“And I’m grateful that we’re doing something rather than nothing,” Kehn added.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.

For more photos of the Ephrata High School graduation, visit the photo gallery here.