Facebook group shows FUHS senior students that the community cares

Marc Sigmon said he was inspired by his hometown when, along with the help of several other Fallbrook residents, he launched the Fallbrook Adopt-a-Senior 2020 Facebook page.

"I've always said that Fallbrook reminds me of my little hometown in Rifle, Colorado," Sigmon said. "That's where I came across this idea because I saw on Facebook that they were doing this for my hometown. I'm an alumnus, so I adopted a senior and I grabbed somebody from a local business here, had them make up a little care package, send it over to them."

That's when he knew he had to bring the idea to the people of Fallbrook.

Fallbrook Adopt-a-Senior 2020 lives exclusively on Facebook and aims to pair the families of senior students at Fallbrook High School with locals who just want to do something to help make the students feel special during this difficult time.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions placed upon school districts regarding what they can and can't do with graduation ceremonies, Fallbrook High will not have in-person graduation.

That is a tough thing for some students to swallow, and Sigmon recognized the local need.

"I got in touch with the person who organized there in Rifle, who happens to work at the same place that I had my first job," he said. "I was talking to her, and I invited her to be one of the original moderators to help and show because her process was working well."

Even though the group was only formed May 11, as of Monday afternoon, May 18, more than 100 seniors have been adopted, and the first round of gifts has been delivered to the adopted students.

"It's just been so rewarding," Sigmon said.

The Facebook group is a private group. and page moderators have to approve each individual who joins, Sigmon said.

"We facilitate information between parents and adopters," he said. "It's all about making sure of the privacy of the children. I mean we made it a private group, so not their information isn't shared."

Once a parent joins the group, they can add photos of their senior student and write a little bit about them. That's when quick-acting adopters can claim the student. The page moderators then connect the parent with the adopter to facilitate the exchange of information and ultimately, gifts.

Since the process is highly protected and demands attention from the moderators, there are many nights when the moderators are up late into the night checking on the group and verifying connections, Sigmon said.

"The moderators and the admins screen the people to make sure that there's some connection to Fallbrook, so that we're not just letting somebody into a private group with a bunch of children and we have the safety of that in mind," Sigmon said. "Once the parent posts there, we look at the post and we make sure that it's genuine, somebody who's connected to a senior and then we post it to the group. And then from that point on, it's just whoever comments on the post first and then we close the post out."

Sigmon said they are working with the school to find out exactly how many seniors are in the class and working to get the word out to as many parents as possible.

"I haven't received the exact number from the school district," he said. "But to get this far in a week is just beyond any expectation that we ever thought."

Sigmon said they are working hard to get the word out to the Spanish-speaking population of Fallbrook that may not necessarily engage in Facebook or Facebook groups.

"We have some people on the team who are bilingual so that we can make sure that if they do post in Spanish that we can communicate to them in Spanish," he said. "Because it's not about anything other than just doing outreach and providing that channel."

Really, the entire program is designed to make students feel better during an emotional, important time of their lives, Sigmon said.

"What we're doing is we're just asking that they have the opportunity to post the information about their senior, how proud they are," he said. "Share a few words and some pictures and tell people about what they like, what they don't like. And what we wanted to do was encourage the local community to kind of find somebody; we just called it an act of random kindness. They see a senior that's coming in there, they want to do something for them. They do it.

"It's all budget-friendly, so there's no requirement that somebody has to spend $100. It's just an act of kindness."

He said adopters can also do it anonymously.

Right now, Sigmon said they just want to get the word out.

"Our goal is to get every single senior adopted," he said. "Not everyone has heard of this yet, and we want everyone who wants this for their senior and everyone who wants to help a senior to know about it."

To apply to join the group, visit http://www.facebook.com/groups/FUHSAdoptASenior/.

Senior banners to be installed downtown

Lila MacDonald, CEO of Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce, is one of the administrators of the Fallbrook Adopt-a-Senior group and, as an alumnus of Fallbrook High, she wanted to do something to help the seniors feel good as well.

"The high school and the chamber work together frequently, so I reached out to the superintendent to see if we could brainstorm," MacDonald said. "The first idea was banners, and since the chamber holds the permits on the banners down Main Avenue, we thought why not start a new tradition?"

MacDonald said 45 banners celebrating graduating Fallbrook High students will be hung up in downtown Fallbrook Sunday, May 24.

"The plan is every year when the Avocado banners come down, the 'Congratulations graduates' banners will be hung up," MacDonald said. "We are excited to celebrate all those seniors who are graduating this year and look forward to their journey. We hope they feel the love of their community at this time and always."

Jeff Pack can be reached by email at [email protected].