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Dawson County educators lead parade through local neighborhoods
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Blacks Mill Elementary teachers drove past local schoolchildren's houses as part of their school spirit parade on Friday March 27. - photo by Erica Schmidt

A long line of cars, each one decorated with window paint and handmade signs, snaked slowly down the road. Car horns honked friendly beeps at each other and at the parents and children standing by the side of the road. 

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Dozens of cars full of teachers and staff drove down the streets of the students' neighborhoods. - photo by Erica Schmidt

Passengers in bright green shirts stood in the cars waving gold pom-poms and drivers waved out their windows, while one passenger with a megaphone yelled to the children, “We miss you and love you!”

And from their front yards and driveways, children and parents waved back to the cars, calling back to their teachers, “We miss you too! Thank you!” 

While all schools in Dawson County are closed until late April due to the recent outbreak of COVID-19, teachers and staff at Black’s Mill Elementary are doing everything they can to keep up school spirit and let their students know that they still care.

On Thursday and Friday of last week, educators at school organized a “teacher parade through neighborhoods in their area, to see their students and spread joy in the community.

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Students and parents waited with their own signs and school colors to wave at their teachers on the way past. - photo by Erica Schmidt

Mrs. Cindy Kinney, principal of Black’s Mill Elementary, said that even though the main goal of the parade was to spread joy to students and their parents, they ended up bringing just as much happiness to all neighborhood residents, regardless of whether or not they had children who go to the school.

“We had older people without kids who were smiling and waving at us, even construction workers who stopped to wave,” Kinney said.

Before the parade, school staff met up at the school to line up their cars. Led by Kinney, the long line of cars made their way through the neighborhoods, where the students and their parents waited smiling, waving and holding up their own signs. 

The students’ reactions to their teachers driving past made as much of an impression on those in the parade as the parade itself made on the onlookers, according to Kinney.

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Teachers and staff decorated their cars and wore school colors to show their school spirit. - photo by Erica Schmidt

“We set out to spread joy to the families, and they in turn did it to us,” She said. “We ended up getting as much of a blessing out of it as they did.”

The school hopes to have another parade in April, after spring break.

“We’re planning on doing one again,” Kinney said, “it’ll just depend on the weather."