Ashley was speaking with her parents about ways they could make a difference for her family members that are in high school. She saw that River Parish schools were doing a campaign called Adopt-A-Senior, and after researching the campaign more thoroughly, she saw this is a campaign happening around the United States. She realized this campaign was not happening in Lafourche parish and wanted to make this happen.
After creating a Facebook page to adopt a senior, she only expected to have 300-400 people, including both seniors and people “adopting” a senior to participate, as of 4/16/2020, she has had over 5,000 people participate with around 250-300 seniors participating. She explained that this is the most important time in a seniors’ life as they are transitioning from childhood into adulthood, and their world has been turned upside down these last few months; they can no longer attend prom, graduation, senior trips, or any of the other events that seniors look forward to. While the rest of the world is struggling, they are entering adulthood into a world that is completely unknown by everyone.
Ashley said starting this page was never about her, although she gets messages from seniors and parents alike thanking her, she said this was always about the seniors and making them feel loved and appreciated, and we should encourage them that in the end, this will all be okay. Through all of this, Ashley is proud of Lafourche Parish and the community in the way they support these seniors; she also said that if we learn anything through all of this, let’s not stop being the parish we are when this is over and not to stop giving to one another.
Let’s consume life instead of letting life consume us. Ashely encourages every senior in Lafourche Parish, whether homeschooled, in private school, in public school, or even a senior at Nicholls, to participate in having someone adopt them as a senior.
