Surprise Yard Signs Greet Graduating Evanston Seniors At Home

EVANSTON, IL — Graduating Evanston Township High School seniors were greeted with a surprise outside their homes Monday morning, after over a hundred staffers and volunteers traversed the city to deliver yard signs to every member of the class of 2020.

The graduating sign distribution was organized by the ETHS Boosters, a nonprofit that supports extracurricular arts programs, clubs and sports at the school. Normally, the group sells the signs as a spring fundraising program. But this year, with seniors forced to miss out on most milestones of the close of their high school careers, the group provided each of the more than 900 members of the school's graduating class with the signs as a gift.

"We want to flood the city with a visible signal of how much we care about every single senior's achievement and loss," Boosters President Jean Fies said, announcing the effort to celebrate the class of 2020. "The yard sign program isn't traditionally something every family can participate in. But these are extraordinary times that require an extraordinary gesture of support for this senior class."

The signs carry the messages, "Celebrate the class of 2020," and "#WildkitsShine."

Nichole Boyd, director of student activities in Evanston Township High School, learned about the Boosters' plan to buy the signs for everyone and helped with distribution.

"With so many people wanting to do something for our seniors, I said, 'Here's the chance,'" Boyd said in a release. "I thought it would be awesome if we partnered with the Booster Club to personally hand-deliver each sign to our students. It would be really special and cool for students to be surprised."

Since the cancellation of on-campus classes for the rest of the year in response to the coronavirus pandemic was announced last month, ETHS has been honoring graduates with Friday night lights — illuminating Lazier Field for 20 minutes at 8:20 p.m., or 20:20.