COVID-19 Heroes: Exchange Honors Grads at Fort Hood
The Fort Hood Exchange paid tribute to its high school seniors in a special ceremony May 25.
In a year of COVID-19 disruption marked by canceled proms and sports events – not to mention classes – the Fort Hood Exchange Employee Association sent high school seniors out on a celebratory note.
Associates put together a plan on short notice, found a stage, created mock diplomas and handed out gift bags as the seniors appeared in their caps, gowns and face masks.
Family members and Exchange associates watched proudly as the event unfolded at Fort Hood’s Palmer Theater on May 25.
“I was so stunned, it was like I was sitting in a crowd of 500,” said Crystal Houston, an Exchange office assistant and president of the Employee Association.
Twenty of the Exchange’s 24 seniors marched in the ceremony, which was conducted with physical-distancing rules that allowed two families per row in a venue that can seat several hundred.
Five of the seniors work for the Exchange, while the rest have family members who do, Fort Hood Exchange General Manager Samantha Davis said.
The event was modeled after an actual graduation ceremony, complete with guest speakers.
One was Ashley Vaughn, the daughter of an Exchange manager who is a 2015 graduate of Ellison High School and a 2019 graduate of Texas Southern University. She is now teaching.
Another was Angenet Wilkerson, who taught for 26 years and serves as Killeen ISD’s director of Community Relations. She provided the equivalent of a keynote address.
“It’s time to activate your intellectual acuity,” she said. “Your mom or dad, your grandma or grandpa, your coach – they planted these seeds in you. Now it’s up to you to bear the fruit.”
The grads represented eight high schools – Killeen, Ellison, Shoemaker, Early College High School, Harker Heights, Copperas Cove, Lampasas and the Texas School for the Deaf.
Davis praised Houston and other Exchange associates who organized the ceremony.
“This group who put this together was amazing,” she said. “It was an ambitious project, it wasn’t easy and they didn’t have a lot of time. But I think a new tradition has been born.”
