As with many events, graduation parties for high school seniors have been canceled, postponed or forced online. Along with these options for graduation parties, some high school seniors have created a new way to celebrate their successes in the form of drive-thru graduation parties.

One LHS senior who has implemented the drive-thru graduation party is Davy Decker. Decker held his party at a local church, where he and his family set up a pathway to view the normal memorabilia of graduation parties. At the end, people were able to visit with Decker himself as he would walk up and with a safe social distance, would be able to reminisce with the people driving through.

“We set my graduation so anyone who wanted to come had the option to drive up or walk through if they were comfortable,” said Decker. “We also had my slideshow of pictures playing on a TV if they were walking and available from a QR code that they could scan and watch later.”

Although it is not quite the same atmosphere as a normal graduation party, the drive-thru graduation only has a few differences.

“The main differences [of the drive-thru graduation party] were that it was a lot shorter because people driving through takes a lot less time than a normal grad party, also because it’s a smaller and shorter celebration because a lot of my family and friends that live farther away weren’t able to come,” said Decker. “So, we’re planning on having a small family party when we can actually gather again. Another difference was changing our food to something prepackaged to make sure everything was safe to eat.”

With postponements of graduation parties or going virtual with them, many high school seniors are uncertain whether or not they will get to ever see some of these people in person again. 

“I obviously wanted to have a traditional grad party, but with our current situation, that option was not possible, unless I wanted to wait, and I didn’t want to push back the date because I don’t know when this will all be over and waiting until it was over is not ideal,” said Decker. “This way I was able to still have a grad party without having to stress about when we’ll be able to gather in large groups again.”

Although this format may not be what seniors anticipated when they were planning their celebrations months in the past, it may just be what is a new normal, so why not give it a try.

“This format worked out really well for me, and although it wasn’t the grad party I had envisioned at the beginning of my senior year, it was still very fun and I’d recommend it to anyone who is worried about having to push back theirs until this is over,” said Decker.