May 15, Miramonte hosted the first-ever virtual Goodbye Rally to keep the tradition of a spirited student farewell ceremony alive during the shelter in place. This online program featured three main components: a live Zoom yoga flow class, a rally video created by the current and future rally leaders, and live Zoom goodbye meetings between seniors and staff. Students throughout the Miramonte community tuned in from their homes to participate in the events. 

The yoga session, taught by senior Sophia Kofoed, occurred during the first 20 minutes of the program. “I was super excited to have the opportunity to teach Yoga to my classmates and teachers! The Goodbye Rally Yoga Class was an amazing first class to teach,” Kofoed said. Kofoed recently completed the YogaWorks 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training program, which helped her prepare for this event.

Miramonte Leadership teacher Jeremy Foltz sent the rally video to students’ school emails. Current rally leaders Jacob Brewster, Konrad Mader, Chris Riney, and Beatrice Whitaker created the video, along with the future rally leaders Gio Donofrio, Donald Frank, Camrin Jaffery, Nick Mollahan, and Hannah Mueller. The video presented updates on what students are doing during the shelter-in-place, a water balloon fight between the old and new leaders, a farewell from the Class of 2020 leaders, and more. “I helped make and film the video, along with making sure we stayed within social distancing protocols. I’m happy with the way it turned out,” Whitaker said. 

The rally video was roughly 15 minutes in length, as opposed to the conventional five to seven minutes. “It was cool to see the new rally leaders and participate in school spirit while sheltering in place,” junior Tristen Aengus said. In addition, the Leadership class forwarded previous rally videos, other activities such as Miramonte trivia Kahoots, and more of Kofoed’s yoga videos to all students through their school emails. 

Foltz then shared a Google Document with all seniors containing individual Zoom meeting invitations from many of the Miramonte staff. Seniors had the opportunity to say farewell to their teachers and faculty virtually in short intervals. “The goodbye Zooms were a great alternative way to say goodbye and thank you to teachers that have helped me through the years,” senior Ryan Ansel said. 

The Google Doc itself was decorated in salmon colors, as a tribute to Miramonte’s salmon colored walls, and featured photos of many teachers during their high school years. “We were trying to have some fun with it,” Foltz said. 

Lots of preparation went into crafting Miramonte’s first online rally. Foltz oversaw the logistical organization and facilitated Zoom meetings with leadership students and current and future rally leaders and ASB officers. “We had to change our traditional rally template quite a bit to fit this scenario,” Foltz said. “I hope the virtual format makes students feel connected.”