PITTSTON – Pittston Area Middle School teachers participated in a 30-vehicle, 2-hour Easter Parade on Thursday caravanning through out the school district starting from the middle school on New Street.
“The teachers were the driving force behind this whole idea,” Patrick Bilbow, building principal, said. “They thought with the absences of the students and not being able to see them on a daily basis, they were really looking for something to do to give the students some excitement and create some positive feelings for our kids. There’s 1,100 students in this school and these teachers are missing all 1,100 students on a daily basis.”
The middle school teachers came up with a way to see students safely by creating a vehicle parade that ran through the City of Pittston, Hughestown, Duryea, Pittston Township, Dupont, and Yatesville.
The parade was led by school district wide municipal police followed by teachers in their vehicles with Bilbow, the Pittston Area mascot and of course, the Easter Bunny riding in the back of a pick-up truck.
Students and parents came out of their homes to catch a glimpse of the auto parade and it was weaving in and out streets in the district.
Pittston Area Middle School faculty member Bridget Brogan initially had the idea to have a vehicle parade.
“We (teachers) decided during an online team chat that we wanted to do something for the children and we thought we’d do an Easter Parade through our communities,” Brogan said. “We thought about decorating our cars, having the Easter Bunny and some local law enforcement in the parade. We’d like to thank our police and fire departments for joining in as well as the cooperation of our Superintendent Kevin Booth and principals.”
Brogan was extremely happy to see the number of teachers participating in the parade
Ironically the morning of the parade, PA Gov. Tom Wolf announced to the commonwealth the rest of the academic year was cancelled making the parade more special for faculty and administration.
“I think it’s probably a real positive time to be doing this for our students and their families,” Bilbow admitted. “I was sitting in my office when I received the word from the governor’s office came down and I thought, wow, how about the timing of this parade where teachers get to see these families and kids.”
Bilbow confessed there is a lot of nervousness and anxiousness amongst families and students in the Pittston Area School District.
“Hopefully for our kids this will give them a little sense of something happy and they will get to see their teachers and know that everybody is still thinking about them,” Bilbow added. “As the building principal, I can’t say enough about our teachers and our staff and trying to reach out to their kids and staying in touch with them through the computer and the Internet to something like this. They’ve really rallied in an obviously a time where there’s no game for it.”
Pittston Area Middle School houses grades 5 through 8.
