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Seniors at a Maine island high school decided to forgo their senior trip plans, instead donating money meant for the trip to residents on the island to help pay for COVID-19 relief, including vaccine clinics' operating costs.
The 13 students from Islesboro Central School had initially planned a trip to Greece or South Korea, like senior classes before them. But the idea of spending money on an overseas trip was "weird and definitely wrong," according to one graduate, Liefe Temple.
The seniors raised nearly $8,000 through fundraising efforts from working at concession stands, holding harvest and winter festivals and hosting community suppers before pandemic lockdowns prevented further fundraising.
The group decided to donate $5,000 of its funds to the island to help pay for COVID-19 relief and the operation of vaccination clinics. The students haven't decided yet where they will donate the rest of the money.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below:
It was painful, no doubt. But in the end, it wasn't a difficult decision.
"It felt sort of obvious that it needed to go back to the island community," said Olivia Britton, 17, of Belfast, one of this month's graduates.
Much of that money would end up going to the Island Community Fund to help people suffering from COVID-19-related job losses to put food on the table or cover unexpected expenses.
The pandemic hasn't been easy for young people anywhere in the United States, and the tight-knit island community has felt the effects keenly.
Five of the Islesboro Central School seniors take the ferry from the mainland, while the rest live on the island, which has about 700 year-round residents. So the students were not only isolated by the pandemic; they were also split apart, unable to gather for months, with a three-mile gulf between the island and the mainland.
The Class of 2021 had long been accustomed to doing things together. For Halloween, the class would coordinate group costumes and pile into a school-owned van, driven by an English teacher, to go trick or treating together on the island.
It was a large group, by island standards. In fact, the 13 seniors represented the largest senior class in recent years.
As the reality of the pandemic took hold, the seniors kicked off an email chain to discuss what to do about the trip. International travel was a no-go, so Greece, South Korea and Japan were no longer options.
They thought about scaling it back. Perhaps they could do a regional trip. It would be better than nothing. But even that started to seem far-fetched.
The world's struggles weighed on them as they tried to justify salvaging an exotic outing against a backdrop of deaths and economic pain.
"We could really see how the whole world and the island, too, was struggling. So it felt really good to do that with our money, to give it back to the people who gave it to us," Temple said.
The president of the Islesboro Community Fund said there were cheers, high fives and even some tears when the board learned of the donation.
"When everything settled down, there was a strong sense of pride in these students. That's because their decision demonstrated an awareness of the hardship in their community and a willingness to do something about it," Fred Thomas said. "They learned that giving is hard, but giving is good."
Word of their gesture spread through a news account in their local newspaper. They received a warm response on the island, said Britton's mother, Dr. Megan Britton, a family doctor who advised the Class of 2021 on fundraising for the trip.
The consensus: "People complain about the youth today but this really flies in the face of that. Not these kids, at least," she said.
