The pandemic has put a dent in senior year for the Pleasant Valley High School Class of 2021. No homecoming, no pep rallies, and no time spent together as a class.

Some of their parents came together and decided to organize some fundraisers and give students at least one more chance to come together as a class and just be kids for a Senior Day in May.

“It’s tough to hear them say, ‘I just want it to be over.’ It’s heartbreaking because this is something they should be looking forward to,” said parent Megin Hoff. “There’s a good chance that they haven’t seen other members of their class all year long.”

Classes were halted in March of last year when schools were closed because of COVID-19. This school year, the students have been attending classes in a hybrid model. Those with last names beginning with A through K go to school on Monday and Tuesday and online the rest of the week, and those with last names beginning with L through Z are online the first half of the week and go to in-person class on Thursday and Friday.

“I haven’t seen him in classes since March,” said senior Briella Kish, about her classmate Tyler Moore. “I think it would mean the world, just having everyone together.”

Moore, who is the president of the senior class, agreed that an event would be important to him and his classmates. Just to have that sense of being together again would mean much to them, because they haven’t felt that way since March.

“We just want some sense of unity. At this point, it’s really hard to find that sense, because we’ve been split for so long,” he said.

Moore feels likes his classmates are drifting apart from each other, as if they were already out of school.

“It feels like every day as we go by it’s like we’re becoming less and less like kids,” he said. “It’s supposed to happen after graduation, once you walk across that turf in June and receive our diploma. That’s when we we’re to enter the real world, but it seems like we’re entering the real world prematurely. We’re entering it now.”

Hoff said, “We need to pull the community together and raise money, so we can do something for them.”

The parents have teamed up with Brittany Angelica, founder of the Ricky Finelli Memorial Fund, to raise money for the event. Angelica is a graduate of PVHS.

Donations can be accepted through Venmo, PayPal and Zelle, or people can contact Angelica at the RickyFinelliMemorialFund@hotmail.com to make arrangements to make a donation.

The group is also running two fundraisers - a Slice for Seniors and Sets for Seniors - right now in local pizza shops and gyms. Patrons can make a donation and sign their names to a pizza or blue barbell tag, which is then placed on the wall of the business to show their support.

“Instead of asking businesses to make a donation after they have had a year that has been so difficult, they can still help without having to make a large donation,” Hoff said. “And you get a cute little piece of pizza (tag).”

A Slice for a Senior can be found at Spinelli’s Brick Oven Pizzeria in Brodheadsville, Benny’s Pizza on Route 715 and Bennys II in Effort, Mike’s Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant in Brodheadsville and Effort, and Original Vincent’s Pizzeria in Effort.

Sets for a Senior and the blue barbell tags can be found at Signature Training Academy, the Body Shop Training Center and Anytime Fitness, all in Brodheadsville.

“Just knowing that we’re going to be able to see people we grew up with pretty much is just huge for us to have this event,” Kish said.

“Being a kid again, just one last time, I mean many of us are going all over the country, we’re doing many different things, and it’s a very likely chance we will never see each other again, so just to have that one chance, because who knows if it will happen at graduation. Who knows if there will be a prom. Like Briella said, it would mean the world to have it,” Moore said.