MARIETTA, Ga. — Blinking lights, revving engines, screaming. If you looked quickly at the celebration happening at Carlton J. Kell High School in Marietta on Wednesday night, you might have mistaken it for a car show.
And it was a car show of sorts. To help honor the over 400 seniors in the graduating class, Kell High hosted a drive-thru commencement. Called the Class of 2020 Bright Future Parade, each student drives around the school, one by one, socially distanced in their cars. Their names and future plans were announced over a loudspeaker as the honorees yelled and their families cheered them on.
And everyone showed out in style. Smoke, lights, music, pictures, happy teenagers.
"We made it! Class of 2020!" one senior yelled from the back seat of a car.
It wasn’t the traditional ceremony many hoped for. And at first, not every student was on board with the idea.
“I thought it was going to be pretty stupid,” said senior Hannah Binkley. “Because it just didn’t sound fun. But, once we started putting everything together, I thought it was actually going to be really cool.”
Binkley’s reaction is nothing if not honest. Perhaps that honestly is something Hannah got from her best friend, Kayleigh Neste.
“She was just a good person, and the most honest, very, very honest person ever,” Binkley said of Kayleigh.
“She was.”
See, Kayleigh isn’t here. She’s wasn’t in one of the cars present in the parade.
Kayleigh, like all the seniors across the country, missed graduation, missed prom due to the pandemic. But, Kayleigh will also miss out on the rest of her life.
“She was a motorhead. She loved anything to do with cars,” said mom, Diane Neste. “She had a 350Z, that she actually passed away in.”
Kayleigh died in a car crash in January, not too far from her school and home.
“I’ve lost people before, but there was nothing like losing a best friend,” Hannah said.
Since Kayleigh loved cars, Savage Ryderz, a car club, helped Hannah, Diane, and Kayleigh’s sister Shannon Bisoff, pull out all the stops.
But instead of the five or six cars Diane originally thought would show up, over a dozen decked out cars rolled up to her home before the ceremony.
“This is amazing,” Diane said and started crying.
Shannon quickly started handing out large letters with lights to attach to each car window. When they were finished. K-A-Y-L-E-I-G-H, glowed in a row.
Not finished with the surprises, a member of Savage Ryderz handed Diane a bright red t-shirt, with Kayleigh’s picture on the front, surrounded by member’s signatures, and the Savage Ryderz logo on the back.
For the second time in the night, Diane burst into tears.
Kayleigh’s friends and family have dealt with the grief a quarantine, so being a part of the ceremony allowed their pain to take a back seat and join the rest of the excited families.
“This might be all that we have as far as graduation,” said Diane.
Shannon said she knows her little sister is giving them a heavenly fist-bump for a job well done.
“She’s probably looking down on it saying, yep, you did it. I approve,” Shannon joked.
As for Hannah, she said she’s equally grateful for the parade.
“I think I’ll look back and think, I’m really glad I did that.”
Kayleigh’s story is just one of the over 400 seniors in the graduating class at Kell High. We want to take a moment to say congratulations to all the seniors at the school, and all seniors across Georgia.
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