Strange memories A determined yearbook committee refuses to be derailed by COVID-19 By: Maggie Macintosh Posted: 7:00 PM CST Monday, Nov. 9, 2020

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/11/2020 (1544 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Friends are hanging out via FaceTime. Student clubs are gathering on Zoom. Classes are being held using Microsoft Teams.

Forget the click of a costly camera lens: the art of Command-Shift-No. 4, among other screenshot short-cuts, will be key in compiling this year’s Fort Richmond Collegiate yearbook.

With more questions about how the year will play out than there are blank pages allotted in the 2020-21 edition, Fort Richmond student record-keepers and their teacher are getting creative in documenting the most unusual school year on record.

“The general feeling out there, from a lot of advisers, teachers who run yearbooks, is it’s almost not worth doing,” said Heather Bell, who teaches photography, business communications and yearbook at FRC, in Winnipeg’s Pembina Trails School Division.

“I think that’s a bit sad because, I think, more than ever, it’s worth doing this year.”

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As COVID-19 numbers spike in Winnipeg, alongside exposures in schools, a return of regular class instruction, assemblies, sports, intramurals and spirit weeks in the near future remains unlikely.

Over the lunch-hour on a recent school day, the hallways are empty. There are no echoes of slamming lockers, student conversation, or squeaky sneakers pacing the polished floors at FRC.

Only half of the population, which is nearly 1,350 Grade 10-12 students in total, is invited to attend classes daily on the current blended learning schedule. Masks are universal and two metres of distancing between peers is in effect inside the building.

In the yearbook room, a dark room lit by string lights, every other computer monitor is taped off with a sign that reads, “Station closed: please allow for social distancing.”

Ayesha Qadir — a Grade 11 student, amateur photographer and a worthy contender for most-likely-to-brighten-up-your-day — cherishes the little time she gets to spend working here.

“If you’re passionate enough and if you work hard enough, and if you know you are surrounded by people who are willing to work hard with you, it’s possible to get through even the wildest of obstacles like this whole pandemic,” Qadir said, reflecting on her time working on the yearbook.

Equipped with the experience of putting together the 2019-20 book, which is expected to print before the new year, after a series of COVID-19-related delays, Qadir is determined to finish the upcoming edition.

When the disruptions happened in March, the FRC yearbook team already had a collection of photos— albeit, incomplete. There were gaps (for instance, where the handball spread was supposed to go) but they managed to make things work by enlarging photos, taking screenshots, and adding a COVID-19 section.

“We don’t want to make our yearbook about COVID because we don’t think that that’s all this year is about, but we have to acknowledge that it’s there.” – Teacher Heather Bell

Some of Bell’s favourite pages pay tribute to students’ quarantine essentials. The team asked students to take photographs of their remote learning must-haves and submit them.

Laptops, art supplies and snacks were among popular still-life items.

With a blank slate that is 2020-21, “we have to totally reinvent the wheel,” said Bell, who has published more than eight yearbooks and up until this fall, had a go-to formula for her class.

While the edition’s glossy pages will include student headshots, a yearbook staple, it will be organized in a chronological order by month, instead of by categories such as sports and student life.

For September and October, the team has collected photos of small classes of masked students. Given the rising case counts, Bell said statistics will likely be noted. (To date, there have been at least two COVID-19 exposures at FRC.)

“We don’t want to make our yearbook about COVID because we don’t think that that’s all this year is about, but we have to acknowledge that it’s there,” Bell said, adding the hope is the content will become more cheerful as the year progresses.

In order to fill all the pages, students are planning to collect content from staff and students — be it creative writing, music playlists or answers to polls the yearbook team creates.

Organizing the book via shared online documents and PowerPoints isn’t ideal because it’s contrary to the classroom discussions and teamwork spirit of yearbook, Qadir said. Despite the challenges, the Grade 11 student said it will be worth it to create a “perfect little book, formatted” with the strange memories of 2020.

“That’s one thing that has been consistent and constant: the kids are still keen and the kids are still happy to be here — more happy than most years. They really appreciate being able to go to school,” Bell said.

Drawing on her experience with yearbooks, Bell knows the 2019-20 and 2020-21 FRC yearbooks are destined to collect dust in graduates’ basements years from now. But there will be a time, she said, where students dust them off to reflect on the unusual year of social distancing and videoconferencing.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie