A pair of Morgan County communities have come together for a massive “adopt a senior” group to support graduating students. Wilma DeWitt, who moved to the Waverly area from Colorado only a few years ago, wanted to put together an “Adopt A Senior” style program for Waverly and Franklin High School Seniors after hearing about similar efforts in her native state. DeWitt says she’s still not quite familiar with the area and started the conversation with her close friend Laura White in the local Dollar General to see if the idea would work. Both ladies went to work on Monday.
White says its become a community effort since then to get almost 400 people on board to adopt nearly all 54 seniors in both schools. “My husband actually grew up in Waverly, and one of my husband’s cousin’s, Elyse Copelin is actually a graduating senior at Waverly, has pulled a lot of people in to help and provided names. We’ve had Denise Talbert from the school who has helped get the page known. I had Jaden Bell help with senior names from Waverly and Franklin. Abby Crow from Franklin has done a lot of work for us to get us coordinated with seniors’ addresses and names, and shared the page with people.”
White says all but 3 students have been adopted because they are still awaiting contact information. DeWitt and White says its extra crucial that this group of seniors needs some extra recognition and support. DeWitt says they have missed out on graduation twice now, as the Waverly group of seniors was the first to not have an 8th Grade promotion and now are missing out on their Senior graduation. White says both groups of seniors were born in the year of the September 11th attacks and also missed out on their senior proms.
DeWitt and White both say that they have asked those adopting to shop for gifts at local businesses as much as possible for seniors to keep the community involved. Both women said they were amazed by how quickly the group caught on after Monday at 11PM when the page was created with just a handful people to nearly 400 people. If you would like to join the group search Waverly/ Franklin Adopt A HS Senior on Facebook and send a request.