Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Carloads of excited children streamed past Moorhead’s elementary schools last week as students ended the strangest year they’d ever known with enthusiastic cheers and applause for – and from – their teachers.

It was a parade in reverse. Children opened car windows and waved with zeal from the streets in front of Robert Asp, Dorothy Dodds, Ellen Hopkins and S.G. Reinertsen schools. Faculty and staff lined the sidewalks – at a proper social distance – as the caravan of youngsters rolled by.

Many of the teachers wore fanciful gear and carried signs wishing their boys and girls a happy summer. Children wore color-coded gear – purple, red, green, orange and blue – denoting the grade they’d just completed. Pandemic preventive measures were strictly enforced, with no biking or walking, no leaving the cars and no physical contact. One sign summed up the heart and soul of the event: “Air hugs!”

Fourth graders about to transition into middle school were invited by their music teachers to record and post videos of themselves singing a song from the Disney musical “Newsies”: “Now is the time to seize the day. Stare down the odds and seize the day. Minute by minute, that’s how you win it. We will find a way.” The teachers compiled their videos into a memorable presentation. It can be viewed at https://youtu.be/YZSAPIN9HNQ