Franklin Square, Elmont community members celebrate graduating seniors

H. Frank Carey parents and administrators played music as they drove around Franklin Square on May 16, delivering lemonade to nearly half the high school seniors.

“We wanted to spread positivity and cheer,” said Mike Scavelli, president of the Carey Dads’ Club. The members of the club wanted to recognize the graduating seniors, he explained, and “spread the love.”

So, they decided to bottle up the school’s concession stand’s famous lemonade, Scavelli said, and spent the day last Saturday delivering it to all of the seniors that requested it.

“Our message has been to bring happiness to a challenging time,” Scavellli said, and bring some good news during a “bad news time.”

In the end, they brought smiles and tears to those they visited, which Scavelli wrote on Facebook the next day, “showed us all, once gain, how we long for that community-togetherness, and that we live in a special place with special people.”

But the Dads’ Club is not the only group celebrating the graduating seniors. John Randazzo, owner of Sandy’s Party Supply & Balloon Brothers Co., made signs for graduates of each school in the Franklin Square School District that can be purchased for $40, and the members of the Sewanhaka Parent Teacher Student Association made signs listing every seniors name, which could be purchased online until Friday and picked up at the high school parking lot.

“I think in these tough times,” President Judy Staiano said, “we have to improvise and think outside the box.”

The PTSA will also hang up a 16-foot long banner honoring its students, quoting Eleanor Roosevelt, saying, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

It will keep the banner for future years, Staiano said, but decided to make one this year because “the kids are losing so many of their senior activities” like their senior barbecue and prom, which they have worked so hard to get to.