Some familiar faces popped up in new places last month: All along Main Street in Boulder, streetlights are adorned with banners featuring portraits of Jefferson High School’s class of 2022.
There is a banner for each of the seniors, with a picture of their choice. Desiree Van Blaricom, parent of senior Rachel Van Blaricom, organized the banner production and installation. Van Blaricom said that “after seeing similar things in Butte and Whitehall, I wanted our kids to have that too.” She said she felt the class should have something similar to what other small schools have, and that it’s something fun to recognize the kids.
In order to get the banners up, Van Blaricom helped set up fundraisers such as selling 50/50 tickets at local activities, and she helped set up sponsorships with the Elkhorn Pharmacy and Cap Paving. Putting up the banners also required approval from the Montana Department of Transportation. The Jefferson High Booster Club donated the brackets for hanging the banners, and hopes to use them to put up banners for future classes.
The banners were made by Garden City Lights, which sponsored a memorial banner for Makinzy “Kinzy” Rynearson-Gray at the south end of Main Street. Gray, 17, died in a crash on Interstate 15 in December.
Designing the banners required high resolution pictures, which meant working with Dawn Smartnick, Sarah Layng and other photographers among school staff to find pictures that met the requirements. Amy Williams, Jefferson High’s secretary, was also recruited for the project to help compile the seniors’ names and correct spellings.
The banners went up around the week of April 17 and will stay up until after the school’s graduation at the end of May.
