Whether students are learning through a screen or in person, senior projects are still a graduation requirement and many seniors are not letting the COVID-19 pandemic get in the way of their senior projects. Checkout what three seniors in the district are doing in the community.

Courtney Grunnagle

For her senior project, Grunnagle decided to help a cause that supports the troops and provides them with things such as candy. As part of her community service, Grunnagle reached out to the community to collect candy, money and other necessities to package and send to the troops overseas for the holidays. She donated everything she collected to the Yellow Ribbon Girls, which is a group of hundreds of girls who work hard to collect packages to send these gifts to the troops. 

“I wanted to do this because they are unable to come home and be with their families for the holidays. It’s really the least we can do to show our appreciation to them,” Grunnagle said.

Matthew Keller

For Keller’s senior project, he decided to give back to the community by touching on a topic that hits close to home for him and many others as well: breast cancer. Keller made pink out T-shirts to sell to family, students, teachers and the rest of the community. He made over $1,500 in sales but has not decided where his money will be donated yet. 

“I did this project because I wanted to be able to give back to those whose lives have been impacted by cancer. The project was dedicated to my mom who survived breast cancer 2 years ago and helped me tremendously throughout the whole process. It’s also dedicated to Mr. Matthews and Mrs. Davids who both passed away from cancer,” Keller said. 

Sarah Yeck

Yeck took advantage of the pandemic and used it to benefit her project and the community. She sold and made Halloween face masks for $5 each. She bought the mask and made the design and put the design onto the mask. All of her profit was donated to the Monaca food pantry. 

“I thought that since Halloween was coming up everyone would want to have a festive mask to wear. So I thought it would be a fun and easy way to raise money,” Yeck said.

As senior projects kick off, many students will be giving something back to the community or getting other students and local community members involved in different fundraisers. Whether there’s a pandemic or not, seniors are still finding ways to raise money and help others for good causes like cancer, troops overseas and to an organization like the food bank that helps people in need.