JOHN COFFELTEditor

The Coffee County Senior Parade has fast grown from an emergency pandemic measure to a community-sponsored event that embraces the uniqueness of each participating member of the Class of 2023.

The students ride atop parents’ cars or trucks decorated with photos and memorabilia recognizing their achievements. The parade retraces their journey in reverse order from Coffee County Raider Academy to Coffee County Central High School, with a detour by the square.

Lisa Wheeler, senior Hayden Scott’s mom, was waiting, poppers and noisemakers in hand, to watch her graduate pass by.

“It means they made it,” Wheeler said. “They had a lot of struggles from learning struggles, bully struggles to I-don’t-want-to-be here struggles… and they made it.”

Kelly Randall, the mother of Cameron Randall, said this class has not had a normal school year their whole high school career.

“It’s a neat recognition,” Andy Wheeler added. “The kids get out and cruise the strip, and now they do it for everybody.”

Wheeler said, “It makes them proud to see their parents and their siblings gathered to root them on. Even though they won’t admit it, they like it.”

She said that it’s not often a parent gets to show their teens how proud they are of them.

Class of 2023 Salutatorian and parade participant Audrey Barton said that it was so much fun.

“I like seeing the community and all (of us) being together one last time,” Barton said.

“It was nice to feel the love from everyone.”

“People I don’t know were saying congrats and cheering me own,” she said.

Parade organizer Ashely Kraft said that the event was even larger than last years.

“We had great attendance from the community too, so it went really, really well,” Kraft said.

According to estimates, 80% of the senior class participated in the parade, with some students riding in the same car as a classmate.

Kraft said this parade and last year’s parade were not put together by the school.

“The school did not want to do it,” she said. “When I was coaching the dance team I had seniors who were upset because they wanted to continue that tradition and though it was neat.”

Kraft approached the school and a tradition was born, and she plans to continue it for the foreseeable future.

“You graduate high school once,” Kraft said. “It’s one of the milestones of your life. Why not celebrate it.”

“This is a cool tradition where if the community doesn’t want to go sit at a graduation or if graduation is held inside and limited, this is a way where the whole community, businesses included can line up and show support,” she added.

“I really enjoy it and are glad that we can give something back for seniors on for this milestone,” Kraft said.

Kraft hopes to expand the parade with business sponsors to help fund car senior magnets or banners.

“We are always looking for volunteers to help the day of the event. It takes a max of like three hours… It’s a lot of fun,” she said.

Kraft offered her sincere gratitude to the Manchester Police Department for helping plan the route and then for manpower for traffic control and parade escorts.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.