Jostens and Ervin Photography take photos of the Jenks seniors in a bus transportation building. STEPHEN PINGRY/Tulsa World
Jenks High School senior Gabby Orr parked inside the district’s bus depot on a recent Tuesday morning and, while wearing a graduation gown and holding a diploma, posed for a professional photographer.
District officials collaborated with local photographer Ervin Photography last week to set up a drive-through photo studio for the hundreds of soon-to-be-graduates who may not get a ceremony portrait otherwise. The pictures will be displayed during Jenks’ virtual commencement planned for May 18.
Orr said she cried when she heard graduation, prom and so many other senior activities were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She felt immense relief when the district tentatively rescheduled the commencement in June and announced an online ceremony for later this month in case the traditional event can’t happen.
Although a virtual graduation isn’t ideal, Orr believes it’s a much better alternative to doing nothing at all. Getting her ceremony portrait taken makes it seem a little more normal.
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“I think what they’re doing is great,” she said. “They’re trying to give the seniors a sense of pride that we’re actually graduating after being through all of this with the coronavirus. We’re finally getting to do what we’ve been waiting 12 years to do.”
The unconventional photo shoot and the unprecedented virtual commencement illustrate the pains districts are taking to salvage one of the biggest moments of students’ young lives: graduating from high school.
There’s still a chance to host a traditional ceremony this summer if social distancing sanctions are lifted in time, which would make this extra effort unnecessary. But educators don’t have time to wait and see what happens. Too much uncertainty remains with what the world will look like in a month or two, Jenks Public Schools spokesman Rob Loeber said.
“We wish more than anything that seniors could finish out their senior year the way they always dreamed,” Loeber said. “But we can only do the best we can under the circumstances. That’s why we set out to provide them with some kind of virtual graduation, something they can sit and watch with their families where their name is going to be up there, their picture is going to be up there and it feels as close to graduation as it possibly can given the situation.”
Speeches from administrators and student leaders will be prerecorded and edited together for the ceremony, and the district is compiling a narrated slideshow featuring each student. There also will be an announcement for graduates to move their tassels from right to left near the end of the video, which Loeber said should resemble a feature-length film by the time it’s completed.
The ceremony won’t be live, of course, but it hopefully will allow seniors to celebrate their graduation with family members.
Similar events are being planned at districts across northeast Oklahoma. The largest, Tulsa Public Schools, is working to finalize its plans to host a virtual commencement in May or June in addition to traditional graduation ceremonies in July.
TPS has not decided on any dates yet, however. That’s because the district faces the extra logistical challenge of making arrangements for nine high schools in addition to its alternative schools.
Although administrators hope to pull off the in-person graduations this summer, they intend to conduct the virtual ceremony regardless, TPS Instructional Leadership Director Stacey Vinson said.
“We know that students’ preference is to have a traditional graduation ceremony, so we absolutely want to keep planning for that should it become a possibility in the future,” Vinson said. “But at the same time, we don’t want to miss taking the opportunity to celebrate this huge accomplishment in these seniors’ lives, and that’s why it was really important for us as a district to take our time to plan for a virtual commencement experience that included elements that were most important to our students and families to the extent possible.”
TPS created a working group of students, teachers, parents and school leaders to provide feedback for its numerous graduation ceremonies. Each school still will have the flexibility to include their own traditions. Vinson expects the details to be finalized in the next few weeks.
In addition to unorthodox graduation ceremonies, some districts have organized other special events to celebrate seniors and boost their spirits.
Bixby Public Schools, for instance, hosted a parade Thursday evening in which hundreds of graduates donned their caps and gowns and waved to spectators as they rode across town.
On Friday, about 20 administrators from Broken Arrow Public Schools and Tulsa Community College showed up at the homes of nine seniors to congratulate them for earning an associate degree while still in high school. Each student, who participated in the Dual Credit to College Degree program, received a personalized poster for their front window and a coveted blue dual-credit graduation cord.
Normally, the seniors would have been honored during Broken Arrow’s traditional graduation ceremony at the BOK Center. But with the potential of that not happening, Superintendent Janet Dunlop said a celebration caravan was the least they could do to ensure these students receive the recognition they deserve.
Dunlop would have liked to personally congratulate every graduate, but the sheer size of the senior class makes that impossible without a typical ceremony. She remains optimistic that the BOK Center commencement, now scheduled for June 30, will take place. If not, though, she said the district isn’t ready to give up on an in-person commencement.
“If we don’t have restrictions lifted enough to where we can have that large of a crowd, then we are already looking at other options, at how we can have some sort of in-person graduation,” she said. “We don’t want to leave it to where there’s absolutely no kind of celebration to mark the finality of high school and the crossing over to college.”
Look for the helpers: See what these Tulsans are doing to ease the stress of the coronavirus pandemic
Look for the helpers: See what these Tulsans are doing to ease the stress of the coronavirus pandemic
Look for the helpers: Local musician plays cello for neighborhood
At first, all Erica Parker wanted to do was brighten a neighbor’s day.
One of the nearby residents in Parker’s south Tulsa neighborhood is a woman in her 90s, whose family — out of very real concerns for her health in the face of COVID-19 — was adamant about the woman sheltering in place.
“They really didn’t want her going outside at all,” Parker said. “Maybe out on to the front porch, but that was it. So I thought I would go over and play something for her, and maybe cheer her up a little.
“And that neighborly thing,” she said, laughing, “soon became a neighborhood thing.”
Look for the helpers: Historic Vernon AME Church
Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church Rev. Robert Turner announced a campaign last year to raise funds for renovating and restoring the Greenwood Avenue church's historic building, which he described as being in "dire straits."
But when the COVID-19 pandemic reached Tulsa this year, Turner's focus shifted to another pressing need for many, even though weekly offerings from members have "plummeted" since shelter-in-place orders started in mid-March.
"You would be surprised, in the richest country in the world, how many people are not just hungry but starving," Turner said last week of the church's feeding program. "We do get offerings that come in, but 90% of that goes to food. We have to pray every week about our utility bills because they're still rising. And in spite of it all, this crazy pastor has the lights on every day, water on every day."
Look for the helpers: Tulsa nurse goes to New York
Tulsa resident Jennifer Wingo has been a cancer treatment nurse for 2½ years. But she felt God was calling her to take a four-week absence from the Tulsa Cancer Treatment Center to help at the Jacobi Hospital in New York during the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I heard an outcry of need and just felt a calling from God to do something more than what I was doing,” Wingo said. “I felt a calling that I needed to help fellow nurses and couldn’t feel that and not answer.”
Wingo contacted a recruiter who answered all of her questions. She hasn’t had to pay for housing or transportation while working in New York. Wingo spoke with her family to make sure they were on board and her job allowed her to take the four-week leave of absence.
“Everything just started falling into place and working out so I said it’s got to be God’s calling and that’s when I came (to New York).”
Look for the helpers: 100,000 bottles of hand sanitizer in Bartlesville
Last month, hundreds of gallons of hand sanitizer were sitting in large tubs in the Washington, D.C., area with nowhere to go.
Craft distilleries were pivoting to making and selling hand sanitizer because they had the alcohol content available and there was a severe need for the product, which was flying off shelves across the country amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
“The problem they ran into very quickly — and that’s where we came in — was they had no means and no ability to package and transport this hand sanitizer because their business was a completely different business,” said Ashish Sukhadia, global polyethylene applications manager at Chevron Phillips Chemical’s Bartlesville Research and Technology Center.
Look for the helpers: The Opportunity Project
The COVID-19 pandemic has created tough circumstances for many Tulsa families, and The Opportunity Project has been doing its part in assisting families in need.
Executive Director Caroline Shaw said the organization is an out-of-school time intermediary.
“We are support for organizations that provide learning experiences beyond the classroom,” Shaw said. “That’s everything from after school programs, summer camps, chess clubs, athletic activities — all kinds of things that expand experiences in learning for kids that doesn’t happen in a traditional classroom setting or beyond the school day.”
Look for the helpers: 413 Farm helps Amelia's Market
When restaurants had to curtail inside dining and furlough employees because of the coronavirus pandemic, many eateries scrambled to develop a plan for takeout and curbside orders.
The new Amelia’s Market & Brasserie, 114 N. Boston Ave., a sister restaurant to Amelia’s Wood Fired Cuisine, started with a skeleton crew, to say the least.
In stepped Angela Faughtenberry, owner of 413 Farm near Adair, who had developed a special relationship with Amelia’s and chef Kevin Snell, selling poultry, pork, eggs and other items since the wood-fire grill first opened.
Look for the helpers: Vintage Wine Bar
Vintage Wine Bar is stepping up to help people in the food service industry who are out of work.
The wine bar and restaurant, 324 E. First St., is providing meals through a “pay what you can” program that it playfully is calling “Food for the Screw’d.”
On a recent week, when executive chef Colin Sato prepared meals featuring Thai green curry with rice, Vintage served 984 meals.
Look for the helpers: Artist Scott Taylor
If your kids need a hero during the pandemic, maybe they can learn to draw their own.
Artist Scott Taylor, the executive creative at Tulsa’s Colorpop Art Lab, teaches free how-to-draw-superheroes classes remotely.
“As a parent myself, I know how important it is for parents to be able to offer their children creatively enriching and educational content that helps them grow. So I decided to try and start doing that but in a way that makes it fun for them.”
Look for the helpers: YMCA celebrates Healthy Kids Day
The YMCA of Greater Tulsa wasn’t about to break tradition, even for a pandemic.
For more than 25 years, the annual Healthy Kids Day has been an opportunity for the YMCA to teach healthy habits, encourage active play and inspire a love for physical activity.
To celebrate this year’s Healthy Kids Day, which is Saturday, the YMCA of Greater Tulsa is handing out 1,500 soccer balls to participants of its year-round and summer camps. The balls are being picked up at the kids’ schools or hand-delivered by their favorite staff members.
Look for the helpers: Meal donations to prison guards
With a smile, Samantha Faulkner loaded up meals for the guards working at the prison where she once served five years for forgery and conspiracy crimes.
After being released, Faulkner went into Take 2: A Resonance Café, a program of Resonance for Women, to get back on her feet. She now attends Tulsa Community College seeking a social work degree while working at the restaurant.
When Tulsa nonprofit Poetic Justice called about donations it was making to staffs at area jails and the state women’s prisons, Faulkner didn’t hesitate to pitch in.
Look for the helpers: Local nurse heads to New York
Tiffany Walton opened a daiquiri bar in Tulsa last year — Alibi Ice Lounge. Folks played cards and dominoes there, had a few drinks, sang karaoke, forgot about their troubles. It was a lot of fun.
It just wasn’t Walton’s calling. That was nursing, something she had done the last 13 years around the Tulsa area, something she felt destined to do since she was a little girl.
“They said I had praying hands and healing hands,” she says. “My mom used to say, ‘Tiffany, your aunt’s knees are hurting.’ I would go over and touch them and pray on them. When dogs and animals were hurt or people were sick, I would sing and pray on them and they would be healed. My dad was a Methodist preacher. I would pray over the communion and sing in the choir. My grandma was a midwife.
“This was given to me.”
Look for the helpers: Tulsa artist Rachel Rose Dazey
Some claim that copper can have some kind of therapeutic effect on certain ailments.
Tulsa artist Rachel Rose Dazey makes no claims about the possible health benefits of the copper jewelry she creates, but she is putting her work to use to help fellow local artists who are struggling in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dazey is selling copper cuffs through her studio website, dillonrose.net, and is donating 50% of the profits from those sales to help local artists. The cuffs are priced at $30 and $40, depending on the style.
“My goal when I started this was to raise at least $2,500,” Dazey said. “Just a few days after we started, we had already taken in about $1,800.”
Look for the helpers: Meals on Wheels
Driven by COVID-19 needs, Meals on Wheels Metro Tulsa has upended its longstanding model and tripled its clientele in the month since Tulsa County confirmed its first case of the disease.
The sharp rise isn’t strictly tied to vulnerable seniors who are sheltering in place. The nonprofit’s footprint is expanding during a $450,000 capital campaign to capture other gaps caused or exposed by the pandemic.
Calvin Moore, president and CEO, said families and individuals quarantined by positive coronavirus tests and first responders adversely affected by the disease now are on regular routes. And last Saturday marked the first day Meals on Wheels dropped off bulk deliveries to churches near its east Tulsa offices to aid the city's Hispanic population.
Looking for the helpers: SPCA animal cruelty investigator
Tim Geen has never been a delivery person before, but this pandemic has put his day job on hold, and it's the least he could do to tide over some furry clients.
"It’s not very much fun," the animal cruelty investigator admitted with a chuckle. "But somebody’s gotta do it, ya know? It's very important to the care and well-being of these animals. They’re depending on us."
In March, Geen delivered close to 3,000 pounds of donated dog and cat food to hundreds of pets all over Tulsa County.
Look for the helpers: Ti Amo
It was three minutes after 2 p.m. and some 30 automobiles were lined up in the parking lot behind Ti Amo Ristorante Italiano. Owner Mehdi Khezri, wearing a white mask and rubber gloves, was handing out free boxes of food to each vehicle.
“We already have handed out more than 90 boxes,” he said. “We weren’t supposed to start until 2, but the line of cars was getting so long we started a little early.”
By the end of the day, Khezri and his staff had given away 330 boxes of food that would feed “close to 700 people, depending on how much each person eats,” Khezri said.
Look for the helpers: Mask maker
Chelsea Pinney made sure senators returning Monday to the Capitol were covered.
Pinney made 50 masks for senators for their one-day return for a special and regular session to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and try to fix a budget hole.
Lawmakers were called in small groups from their offices to the chamber to cast votes in an effort to follow social distancing.
Look for the helpers: Balloon artists
Two years into his home-based business and two months after his first major award, the coronavirus pandemic let the air out of Brady DeGroot’s rising Ballon-ertainment business, but he’s busy keeping people happy anyway.
Just as the season for Easter parties, proms, graduations and class reunions kicked off, the pandemic popped one bubble but gave rise to another.
“One Million Bubbles of Hope” had 350 balloon artists from 15 countries putting up displays in random places “to help bring happiness to as many lives as they can” on March 20. A second worldwide event, organized online at onemillionbubbles.org, is set for April 11-12.
Look for the helpers: Animal fostering
A mere week after a Tulsa animal shelter sought foster homes for every animal in its care amidst COVID-19, the kennels and cages were clear.
“We were pleasantly overwhelmed,” said Jen Bladen, communications director for Tulsa SPCA. “I am so touched by each family that comes to pick up a foster animal and tells us how excited they are to have somebody to quarantine with.”
The actual days seemed to tick by slowly, Bladen said, but in retrospect, the more than 110 animals went quickly, and now the shelter’s Facebook page is flooded with pictures of happy puppies, kittens, cats and dogs in their temporary loving homes.
Look for the helpers: Harvard Meats owner Duke Dinsmore
Duke Dinsmore saw a need coming even before the grocery store shelves and coolers were empty.
Dinsmore, owner of Harvard Meats, 1901 S. Elm Place, in Broken Arrow, said he emptied his checking account to stock up his shop in expectation of a rush on meat as people sought extra provisions in preparation for possible quarantines and lockdowns as the coronavirus spread in Oklahoma.
The risk paid off, and as big box retailers saw their meat departments emptied, more and more customers turned to small businesses like Dinsmore’s to feed their families. He's been flooded with extra business, leading to 15- to 18-hour work days for Dinsmore and his crew as they try to keep up with demand.
Look for the helpers: Tulsa Botanic Garden
The Tulsa Botanic Garden closed to the public amid coronavirus threats just in time for its more than 100,000 tulip bulbs to begin to bloom, but garden staffers aren’t about to let them remain unseen.
More than 500 were cut and delivered to Hillcrest Medical Center on Tuesday, bringing a sweet surprise to nurses and patients alike.
“Lots and lots of smiles,” Chief Nursing Officer Jodi Simmons said. “Which is exactly what we need right now.”
Look for the helpers: Tulsa artist Margee Golden Aycock
The family that creates together is now working together to help fellow artists.
“I guess there’s something about having to be confined in one’s home that gets the creative juices flowing,” Margee Golden Aycock said.
She is a painter whose works have been shown and sold around Tulsa and the region for years, and was trying to think of something she might do to help people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Look for the helpers: Elementary school teacher Bethany Martin
Bethany Martin is the owner of an inflatable T-Rex costume. Bored in this age of social distancing, she put on the costume a few days ago with the intent of bringing joy to others. She stood on the corner of 27th and Yale in her T-Rex suit and waved to people in passing cars.
Neighborhood kids spotted the T-Rex and alerted others to the dinosaur’s presence. Hmmmm.
“I was like, you know what, I should do this every day, go for a 10- or 20-minute walk and just give the kids something to look forward to,” Martin said.
“I’m a kindergarten teacher so I’m obviously not able to work right now, and I miss my students a lot. So it’s like, well, if I can’t be with my students, at least I can make some other students happy.”
Look for the helpers: Tulsa Ballet costume shop
The wardrobe staff of Tulsa Ballet typically spends its days working on, and surrounded by, some of the most beautiful costumes ever to grace a Tulsa stage.
But for this week, the staff is devoting all its time and energy to working with 8-by-14-inch rectangles of plain navy and black cotton fabric.
These pieces of costume remnants are being transformed into masks that Tulsa Ballet is donating to area hospitals and health services.
