Michael and Whitney Mason and their young two sons stood at the intersection of Park Street and Cottonwood Drive Monday afternoon in Munford to take part in a pretty unique event: a parade with no crowds.
Munford Elementary School teachers, administrators and paraprofessionals got in about 30 cars Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. and drove around town for two hours to wave at students, parents and others in an effort to lift spirits and stay connected to the community while schools are out to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
“We’re very excited to do this,” said Whitney Mason, who’s son, Kase, is a pre-kindergarten student at MES. “He’s too young to understand all this, but he’s excited, too. I think it’s really sweet.”
Kindergarten teacher Julie Ligon saw that another school district had done something similar recently. She posted it on Facebook, tagged a lot of her teacher friends and it took off from there.
MES staff members honked their horns, called out students’ names and held up signs encouraging hand washing and social distancing. Many of the people along the route also had signs which said thinks like “I love MES!”
“I think what was most amazing to us teachers were all the kids and parents that waited on us and made such sweet signs,” said kindergarten teacher Tracy Wallace. “We love teaching and appreciate all the families that showed us so much support today.”
Wallace said the main message was love for their students, but that social distancing was also being stressed. Most people along the parade route seemed to be adhering to that. For the most part there were groups of three or four people, usually family members, gathered along the streets.
“It breaks my heart that we aren’t able to stop and talk to them, but it’s better than nothing,” Wallace said. “We’re just trying to do something positive because when you turn on the news it’s pretty stressful these days. We just wanted to remind our kids we haven’t gone anywhere. We’re still here.”
