With a year as infamous as 2020, it’s no wonder that this school year’s yearbook will possibly be looked back on by the historians of the future and today’s students alike. 

However, making a yearbook over distance learning is (understandably) much more difficult than in-person. There have been no sports events to photograph, no performances to commemorate, no competitions to document, and not even any hallways or classrooms to survey and interview students in. Without these, this yearbook’s material has been thin on the ground.

Yet, the enduring yearbook staff has been working on ways for Palo Verde’s students to contribute to this important yearbook in safe and easy ways.

One of which is allowing students to submit their own pictures for different pages of the yearbook. For example, one of these pages is a pet page, where students can send in a picture of them and their pet(s) along with their name, their pet’s name, and their grade. 

Other pages students can submit pictures to include a sibling, car, shoe, first day of online learning, Thanksgiving, Halloween, and holiday page. 

“We have a lot of [submissions] from a few students,” yearbook editor Courtney Moriarty said, “but any pictures would be great.”

These pages included deadlines on when to send in pictures by. Due to the process of page submission, late photo submissions cannot be taken. However, more submission categories with new due dates shall be released soon.

The only page left open for now is the holiday page, asking for any pictures of students celebrating the holiday season with their full name and grade level included, due February 13, 2021. Pictures are to be sent to [email protected].

Another way students can help with the yearbook is by participating in the yearbook polls given through email by Ms. Carque back in November.

The email includes links to five short Google Forms surveys: a personal survey, a this or that survey, an entertainment survey, a school questions survey, and a food survey. The questions are brief and easy, asking things like “Facetime or Texting?” or “[What are the] Positive aspects of distance learning?”

These polls are still available to take and are encouraged, as Moriarty said, “We are planning on creating a page with the polls and surveys taken…this year’s yearbook will definitely be one to remember for us editors (Daphne Sadler, Nina Sullivan and myself) and [the yearbook advisor] Ms. Resnick.”

Despite the difficulty of creating a yearbook for this school year, the yearbook staff has worked diligently and resiliently to provide the best they can with what they have. And with students’ help, the whole process shall be made much easier.