We have all been affected by COVID-19. I don’t need to tell you that. My son was a senior this year. He missed out on all the enjoyable parts of senior year. Most of us remember prom, senior skip day, senior trip, senior bbq, and of course graduation. We remember those last few months of hanging out with friends who would soon be off to other places. I watched my son get robbed of all of the end of year senior memories or so I thought.

I want to sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, thank the teachers and staff of Merrimack School District. They spent hours holding zoom calls, preparing lessons, answering our e-mails, making sure our kids had the supplies they needed, and even that our kids were feed. They gave my son memories that I didn’t have the power to give him. Teachers and staff drove around town delivering signs to let everyone know that a senior lived in our houses. My son’s chemistry teacher, Dr. Campbell, drove to each of her AP student’s houses and delivered a pre-AP test gift bag containing several items. She had t-shirts especially made for them that reminded them that they were part of her class and she was behind them the whole way. I’m sure that she paid for the items herself and I know it took her hours to deliver them. She spoke with each of her students letting them know she was still there for them and that she missed them. The district made video presentations to replace award ceremonies and to recognize kids who had worked hard for four years. My son won an award for Chemistry and the entire science department drove to my house to deliver it to him in person. They did not need to do that, there was certainly no expectation that they would, and yet they did. Somehow the district even managed to figure out how to give my son a graduation that allowed him to walk across the stage and receive his diploma in front of his family. I cannot begin to imagine the hours that went into the planning of a graduation that kept everyone safe, followed the guidelines set by the state, and still honored the graduates.

My son will not have the same memories as many of the seniors who graduated in years before him or most likely in years after him. But thanks to the work of the Merrimack School District and especially his teachers, my son will have good memories of his senior year. In some ways extraordinary memories of his senior year. I can’t thank them enough for what they did to make the memories about more than what COVID-19 took from us, but about what we did as a community to celebrate what we still had, each other, great kids, a great school district, and a determination to move forward regardless of the challenges we might face.