A Group of Preschoolers Graduate to Big School in COVID Times
It’s graduation season, so tonight we follow a group of pre-schoolers at the Y.W.C.A. as they celebrate that special day in their very young lives. As you know, COVID-19 has changed the traditional to new and innovative ways. At the Y.W.C.A., the graduation may have taken a little longer, but it was worth the while. The preschoolers graduated in groups of ten to adhere to social distancing. Here is how that was accomplished with News Five’s Duane Moody.
Kelees Clother
Kelees Clother, Graduate, YWCA Preschool
“Thank you to the members of the board of directors, our parents, teachers, guests and classmates. Thank you for your support and for sharing this special day with us. Once again, thank you all.”
Duane Moody, Reporting
Kelees Clother joined one hundred and twelve other preschool students from the Young Women’s Christian Association who participated in a first-of-its-kind graduation exercise. Since nine a.m. today and every other hour up to six p.m., the children graduated in groups of ten in an effort to adhere to social distancing rules.
Deanna Gomez
Deanna Gomez, General Secretary, Y.W.C.A.
“This is actually a fantastic day for us at the Y. We couldn’t make our babies miss their graduation and the parents certainly were willing to have them here. So this is an important milestone for our four-year-olds; they are going to big school. We knew we had to adhere to what are the new regulations and our preschool head teacher and the teachers and all of us here were willing to do what we could do and you saw today what happened. So this is the fourth of nine. We started this morning at nine o’clock; we’ll finish, our last cohort comes in at six o’clock. We are doing social distancing, adhering to numbers no more than forty in a room. So it is working out perfectly. The children are walking up, they are excited; it is a twenty-five-minute ceremony. They get to take pictures, the parents get to come with them. We are excited. It is really a fantastic feeling and it is really a good thing for us to be able to do.”
Held under the theme, “Education is the passport for the future for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today,” General Secretary Deanna Gomez speaks about the vital role the Y plays in early childhood development.
Deanna Gomez
“They are going off to big school next year and we are going registration. So every year those are about the numbers that we graduate. We have a big preschool and we are happy with what we do and our contribution to early childhood education.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
