Forget walking across the stage. Some 600 seniors from Cicero-North Syracuse High School might not have a normal graduation due to the Coronavirus pandemic, but they will get a special honor next weekend.
Driver’s Village, an auto mall in Onondaga County, New York near Syracuse, will display senior photos of the graduates on three Watchfire Signs electronic reader boards located at the large automall near the intersection of I-81 and I-481. Photos of each student, along with their name, will appear for approximately 10 seconds and run alphabetically throughout the business day on both June 6 and June 7.
“We just wanted to give these kids some extra exposure,” said Driver’s Village Marketing Director Ken Elander.
Driver’s Village, a group of twenty automotive franchises, reached out to Cicero-North Syracuse several weeks ago with the idea and got an enthusiastic response. One of the Watchfire Digital Signs is 14-by-26 feet and the other two are 8-by-15, Elander said.
Photos of the students will run continuously through the two days, probably from around 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Elander said they are still trying to decide if the signs will loop through all 600 seniors at once, or show half of them Saturday and the other half Sunday.
Families are welcome to visit the automall and park in the lots while taking photos of their student while it’s displayed on the signs.
Driver’s Village also is working on a similar plan to honor graduates from Faith Heritage School in Syracuse.
The North Syracuse School district, with more than 8,300 students, is the biggest district in Onondaga County other than the Syracuse city district.
