Local church and community celebrates 2020 graduates

Pastor Darrell McIntosh and his church, Green Grove Baptist Church in Elko, came together with Shontorria Finn, Saturday, to celebrate the local graduating class of 2020 by hosting a graduation salute parade.

Finn, coordinator of the event, said she wanted to do something special for some of the local graduating seniors.

“I just remember when my two children graduated from high school, my last son graduated last year, and I remember how important it was and how memorable the moments were,” Finn said. “To know that the students and parents this year were robbed of that, I wanted to come up with something that would put a smile on their faces.”

When Finn came up with the idea to host a graduation salute parade, she said she reached out to McIntosh, whom she’d never met before, to see if he would like to be a part of the vision she had. Finn also asked her husband, who rides a motorcycle, to invite his riding friends.

“God is love and God doesn’t have to know us to love us, and I don’t have to know anybody to love them, so I love people, and I simply was just advertising this, and it all came out beautifully,” Finn said.

Before the parade began, McIntosh said a special prayer for the graduates and their families, and then recognized each graduate by name. For Casey Hunter, a Perry High School senior, he said it meant so much.

“This is everything, for the church to give this opportunity to have some type of celebration during this dark time,” Hunter said. “So just to shine a little light on it, it really does mean a lot to me, my family and my peers.”

Hunter’s immediate future plans are to attend Fort Valley State University in the fall to pursue a degree in agriculture engineering technology.

HHJ News