Seniors stroll through their past

The hallways of the Beaver Brook Elementary School on Friday were lined with students looking at their future selves.

The Abington High School Class of 2022 – fresh from their graduation rehersal – resumed a growing tradition known as the Senior Stroll, where they walk down their old hallways one last time as students.

“It’s one of the best moments of every school year,” said Superintendent Peter Schafer. “Our graduates love reminiscing about their experiences in their previous schools and grades with the faculty and staff as they travel through the district. Seeing the faces they remember brings it all back. Years of memories are relived and discussed between graduates as they travel through the district together.”

The Class of 2022 – 155 members strong – piled into Abington school buses and visited the Woodsdale as well as the Beaver Brook. Back when the seniors were in elementary school, the Beaver Brook housed grades 1 through 4. Today, it’s home to K through 2.

It was the first Senior Stroll since 2019; the pandemic scrapped the last two.

The school’s students lined the hallways and cheered as the seniors looped through. Many of the younger students held handmade signs offering their congratulations. But it was the teachers who seemed the most excited, as they recognized their former students, now all grown up, parading through.

“Our faculty and staff care deeply about the students we serve. They establish productive, trusting, respectful and caring relationships over the course of a school year,” said Schafer. “We all wish the students well at the end of each year as we say goodbye. The students move to the next grade level, school building and ultimately graduate. A new group of students come and it starts all over year after year. However, the faculty and staff all hope for the students to be successful, happy and healthy long after they leave each grade.

“Seeing the students return as proud graduates feeds an educator’s soul.”