Pandemic modifies
attendance, event
to be live-streamed

CELINA-Over 60 members of the Clay County High School (CCHS) Class of 2020 will receive their diplomas here in the school’s gymnasium this Friday night beginning at 7 p.m. and a commemorative edition featuring photos of graduates is inside this week’s Dale Hollow HORIZON newspaper.

Thanks to the support of local businesses and elected officials, who continue to show their appreciation to the class with congratulatory advertisements, the graduation section has become a springtime staple of the newspaper and is published annually during the week festivities are to be held.

The special edition features both CCHS valedictorian Taylor Smith and salutatorian Kelcee Rhoton on the front page, along with individual photos of the other 61 individuals making up the CCHS senior class and eight Clay County Adult High School graduates inside the six-page publication.

For the first time ever, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ceremony is not open to the public and attendance is limited to four people per graduate.

“Each senior will be given four tickets for family members of their choosing to attend graduation,” the school announced on their Facebook page. “Only ticket holders will be allowed to enter the building and the gym will be marked off to social distance families during the ceremony.

“Safety guidelines for COVID-19 will be followed. The ceremony will be streamed live here on our page (www.facebook.com/cchsdawgs), and seniors will receive a copy of the video and the senior slideshow.”

Besides being a part of the paper, a special digital edition of the graduation section featuring all color photos can be found online at www.dalehollowhorizon.com.

Leading up to graduation, the Clay County Chamber of Commerce has been honoring seniors by scrolling the entire class on their digital sign.

“Graduating seniors will be featured in groups of 21 at a time, due to memory capacity of the sign,” a post on the Chamber’s Facebook page (www.facebook/dalehollowlake.org) said. “Our first group of 21 covers seniors with last names ending in ‘A’ through ‘I’ and will be on the sign for three days.

“Then, we’ll put another group on for three days, and so on. We’ll keep that rotation up until at least graduation day, giving each of our 60-plus CCHS seniors dozens of times on the board.”

Chamber officials also offered their appreciation to those involved in making the display a success.

“Thanks to all who had a part in this,” the post said. “The idea was a great one, and there have been (and will be) several volunteer hours put in on the project.”