Westbrook High School Maine Step up Day 2016 Class of 2020 from A Maine Photographer

This past weekend I was sitting in the back of our pickup truck listening to an outdoor concert when I started thinking about something...I was thinking of an event I photographed in the Spring of 2016. My son Joshua had just graduated high school and had gotten an "away" summer job and thrown me in the throws of being an empty nester quicker than I had planned on. He had been helping organize a "Freshman Step Up Day" at the high school but he himself couldn't be there because of his new job. The day was planned using events he had experienced by attending "Seed of Peace" camps a few years prior. The leadership from the school and the camp came together to plan activities uniting students through outdoor games and activities, and I was lucky enough to be asked to document it through my lens!

The part that I realized while in the back of my truck Saturday night...the same night Westbrook High was having their class of 2020 graduation...was that the class I photographed participating in the Freshman step-up day back in the Spring of 2016 was none other than the class of 2020!

If you are not familiar with Seeds of Peace, there is no better time to be enlightened then today!

Seeds of Peace is a leadership development organization committed to transforming legacies of conflict into courage to lead change.

The issues we are dealing with today are the very issues that created Seeds of Peace

Seeds of Peace changed my sons life. Please, by all means, if your child has an opportunity to attend consider it an amazing opportunity for change, for growth, for understanding, for leadership.

The outdoor concert was the Don Campbell Band at the Clambake in Pinepoint Maine...due to Covid 19 and the additional restrictions on Cumberland County only take out and outdoor seating dining allowed...the band dubbed the event...the first annual Clamstock ;)

But, without further delay, here is that Freshman step-up day recap of the Class of 2020...back in the Spring of 2016...when times were just a tiny bit more simple...