As this unconventional school year nears its end, Wilton High School Class of 2020 will celebrate in ways never experienced before by a graduating class! Thanks to Wilton Public Schools for all you have done (and are doing) to create lifelong memories for the Class of 2020 and their families! Please read below.
Academic Awards Ceremony
This year’s Academic Awards will be presented in a spectacular virtual celebration on Monday, June 8 at 12:00 noon. Please check your email at the end of this week for an invitation link to the Virtual Academic Awards Assembly honoring many of our outstanding seniors. Please tune in and celebrate this WHS tradition and special event for the Class of 2020
Virtual Spring Sports Senior Night
We are creating a special video to celebrate our spring senior athletes. It will include supportive messages from the coaches and administration. A link to the video on WETV will be shared as soon as the video is available.
Senior Athletics Awards Ceremony
The Senior Athletic Awards Ceremony will be a virtual celebration this year. The booster clubs are currently making their final decisions on who will receive scholarships and awards in their respective sports. The projected date of the Senior Athletic Awards Ceremony is June 15th. If all the videos are sent in early, the virtual awards ceremony will be posted before graduation.
SENIOR CAR PROCESSION
The Senior Car Procession including the entire Class of 2020 and their families is scheduled for Saturday, June 13 at 1:00 (The rain date is Sunday, June 14 at 1:00). The senior car procession will leave Allen's Meadow, turn right on Route 7 south and proceed turning right on Ridgefield Road, then right on Middlebrook Farm Road and finally right on School Road. This is a four mile procession that takes the students past Middlebrook and Cider Mill Schools, culminating at Wilton High School. Many community members will eagerly support and cheer on the graduates along the route while staying safe, keeping appropriate social distance, and respecting PPE guidelines.
School Road will be lined with the faces of our graduates on very special graduation signs. These are also keepsakes in celebration of the members of our WHS class of 2020. We ask that you return to the place on the route to collect your own student’s sign that evening before 8:00pm. Volunteers will collect any remaining signs that families do not pick up.
The parent drivers will form two lanes of traffic along Lilly Way and proceed in front of the high school through the gauntlet of WHS staff members. In front of the high school, decorated in true Blue and White Warrior Pride, and with great pomp and circumstance, school and district officials will award students their diploma covers and a special gift from the WHS PTSA while a professional photographer captures the experience. We have a commitment to town authorities that our parents will ensure that their students will stay inside their car and adhere to all prescribed guidelines during the procession. Please refer to the previously published guidelines for the car procession.
In collaboration with the Wilton Police Department and Wilton CERT we have organized the staging of the cars in the two parking lots at Allen’s Meadow and in the high school senior lot. Parents must ensure that they and their student arrive early enough to be staged, that they stay in their cars during the entire staging process, and that they are ready to depart at 1:00 sharp. We recommend arriving at your designated staging area between 11:45 and 12:45 so that our team comprised of administrators, faculty, and CERT members can line up all the cars and begin our procession at 1:00. We ask that all drivers proceed directly to their designated parking area and follow directions of staff members upon arrival. Students with last names beginning with A-F will stage in Allen’s Meadow Lot 1, students with last names beginning G-S will stage in Allen’s Meadow Lot 2 and seniors with last names beginning T-Z will stage in the WHS senior lot.
Our virtual graduation ceremony will showcase all of our usual speakers, honoring the class, its student leaders, valedictorians, and parents. Speeches will be pre-recorded and then streamed prior to the car processional. The ceremony will include music and the reflections of speakers who are very invested in the Class. The anatomy of the ceremony will closely mirror a typical graduation. The ceremony will be streamed at 10 AM on June 13 on YouTube, and can be watched any time thereafter.
Cap and Gown Disbursement
There is a special surprise plan in place to distribute caps and gowns to seniors next week. At this time you will also receive two additional important items: 1) your “photo card” which you will need to bring with you on June 13 to give to the photographer when you receive your diploma, and 2) your personalized car placard that you will display in your windshield during the procession.
Seniors and families who choose not to participate in this surprise event will need to retrieve their cap and gown at the high school at an alternate time during the week of June 8. The school will reach out to those students with pickup information.
Additional Photo Opportunities
In the weeks following graduation, students and families will have the opportunity to come to campus and have a professional graduation photo taken in their cap and gown with their families. The professional photographers will be on campus taking photos in front of the high school with a celebratory graduation background on Tuesday, June 16 and Wednesday, June 17. The exact times remain to be determined with the photo company and will be published next week along with the sign up sheet.
Students and families can also reserve Lilly Field for larger family and group photos after June 20 through the Parks and Recreation website. Click here to access their sign-up system (click on Rentals).
Yearbooks
Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the regular timeline for publishing the yearbook has been delayed. Our yearbook committee has been working tirelessly to finish the book, but they have naturally encountered issues due to having to do everything virtually instead of in-person. In talking with our rep, we found out that this is a very common issue right now all across the country. Currently, we are expecting delivery the week of July 13. We will reach out to arrange distribution as we get closer to the delivery date, and seniors will receive their yearbooks before the underclassmen.
