The Ohio Valley Career and Technical Center’s Yearbook Class has been working extra hard this year to make a positive difference. They have set an ambitious goal and are far on the way towards achieving it.
This was an entire class of yearbook novices, including Angela McGraw, the Yearbook adviser. McGraw says, “This has been a great learning experience for all of us, and I think we have especially benefited from having fresh eyes on a traditional program.” She noticed in the first few weeks of school that some of the students were working hard and putting their hearts into something that they, themselves, weren’t going to enjoy.
“Several students openly told me that they have never owned a yearbook and wouldn’t be purchasing this senior one either.” added McGraw.
Senior year is expensive, and Adams County is a working class community. Many of the students at the OVCTC already have jobs and family obligations that are not typical for the average high school student. On the other hand, seniors are the stars of the yearbook. In fact, the Class of 2016’s motto this year is, “Our lives are before us, our past is behind us, but our memories are forever with us.”
Considering all this, the Yearbook Class set a goal of providing free yearbooks for every senior at OVCTC. These yearbooks will be gifted to all seniors at graduation. Juniors can order their books for $25, the at-cost price from the publisher. The yearbook has always covered their operating budget through ads in the yearbook sold to local businesses. They determined to cover the additional expense by selling more ads and by accepting individual sponsors.
There will be a page in the yearbook titled “Thank You for Sponsoring a Memory,” in which the names of all sponsors will be listed. The students will also detail the outcome of this venture in a follow-up newspaper article and list the sponsors there. Their ads to businesses have already matched the amounts brought in through previous years, completely covering their budget, and they are now focused on buying senior books. In the first few weeks of school, they wrote out their goal: 168 seniors at $25/book = $4,200.
“There are only so many businesses in the area,” McGraw points out, but there are many hard-working individuals who will step up to support our cause. I’m proud of our area. I believe we support our young people in every way we can.” She noted that her novice class has received helpful advice and encouragement from Bradford Photographic and Dennis Gustin, the Yearbook advisor at North Adams. “Good communities pull together for their kids,” says McGraw.
To sponsor a yearbook, contact any of the Yearbook Staff students at the school: OVCTC, 175 Lloyd Road, West Union, OH 45693 or call Angela McGraw at 937-217-5003.
Photo: From left: Back row: Kayla Adkins, Emma Grooms, Anslee Creech, Paul Aldridge, Donna Brodt, Morgan Grooms, Megan Madden, Shane Hillard, Austin McCord, Mrs. McGraw.
Front Row: Kylee Applegate, Samantha Enoch, Mary Lechner (Ryan Daugherty, not pictured)
