Although last month’s announcement that a Wellesley High School Class of 2021 prom would not be held disappointed many, things have changed since as COVID-19 restrictions have loosened. In fact, a “Senior Prom/Activity” will be held on June 2, as part of a series of year-end activities that will appropriately honor graduates while providing plenty of fun.

Here are the highlights:

The seniors will enjoy outdoor activities such as a Pep Rally run by the Student Unification Program; a Pet Parade; a Senior picnic and teacher luncheon; a Community Service Day—look for the seniors out and about town on May 26th doing clean-ups and other activities; and more.
It will all culminate in graduation on Fri., June 4, 5pm at Darcey Field (rain date is Sat., June 5, 9am at Darcey Field).
Then a Senior parade will take place on June 5 starting at 9am at Babson College (rain date Sun., June 6, 9am at Babson). Details on the route are still being worked out.

Although most of these events aren’t open to the general public, it’s nice to know that things are getting back to normal for the town’s students.

This year’s plans are a far cry from last year when due to the pandemic almost all end-of-year senior activities were canceled. The Class of 2020 never dreamed that when they walked out of school on March 12, that would be their last day of high school. Graduation was creatively salvaged with a car parade, and the whole town turned out to cheer students as they were driven on an 8-mile loop that began at Babson College and ended at Wellesley High School, where they picked up diplomas.

Wellesley High School graduation 2020 — The Class of 2020, car graduation parade.

Then in mid-summer about 200 Wellesley High School graduates out of the class of 400+ took part in a scaled-down ceremony on Darcey Field to celebrate the Class of 2020’s launch to the future.