PAY IT FORWARD: Adopt a Senior program helps amid pandemic

WASHINGTON (FOX 5 DC) - The coronavirus pandemic has really wreaked havoc on graduating high school seniors.

Years of hard work, tests, college and career prep traded for distance learning, zoom meetings and virtual graduations.

Now there is a movement that's hoping to take the sting out of the COVID-19 chaos.

It’s called Adopt a Senior and pages encouraging people to help graduating seniors have been popping up on Facebook pages across the country. Seniors post pictures of themselves, their academic achievements, and requests for donations to offset college costs on a central page. Then users can “adopt” them by fulfilling their requests.

Graduating seniors, Mikyle Gregory, Ar’Dinay Blocker, Austin Jones, and Milcah Habteselasie have gone through their share of hardships over the past few months but say they are encouraged and looking forward to the next step.

Easterns Automotive Group and the Pay It Crew recognize how difficult it has been for recent grads. So we wanted to give them an opportunity to talk about their successes, but we didn’t stop there. Easterns “adopted” each of the seniors and provided them with a $500 gift card to help them continue on the road to success.