Pushing through the pandemic: The Round Up still strives to produce a quality yearbook while facing a great obstacle

BY RYAN MERARD

Every year, CCHS’s The Round Up yearbook staff aims to create a quality yearbook that serves as a remembrance of the school year. This year, The Round Up faces a new situation that they are not familiar with, as COVID-19 still continues to leave its mark on public life, making it harder for coverable events to be hosted. 

Months, even years before the current school year, the idea for this upcoming yearbook was to have it built around 2021 being the year of CCHS’s 50th anniversary. The Round Up has been preparing for this theme since the past school year but with the emergence of the coronavirus into society, the yearbook is now headed in a different direction: the pandemic.

“The pandemic definitely affected our theme a lot,” Editor-In-Chief Summer Testa said. “I’ve been planning our theme since freshman year and always knew from the start that this year would be CCHS’s 50th year being open.”

Page ideas for the previous theme were already arranged and The Round Up was prepared to gather the content needed for these pages. As schools in Broward County decided to open up virtually though, this big change in the community is what prompted The Round Up to center their theme for the upcoming yearbook around the current pandemic. 

“The hardest part about picking a theme is hoping that as the year goes on, the events from the year will relate to your theme.”

Editor-In-Chief Summer Testa

“We’re still mentioning the 50th anniversary, but our theme is more focused on the pandemic now,” Testa said. “The hardest part about picking a theme is hoping that as the year goes on, the events from the year will relate to your theme.”

As cases for the coronavirus in Florida still fluctuate, occasions that are usually covered in the yearbook like Homecoming are still not certain to occur. With this in mind, The Round Up is taking advantage of the time they have now by gathering as much content as they can before any other coverable events get canceled. 

“The procedure is nearly the same except for the fact that our staff is following safety guidelines such as mask-wearing and social distancing. We are trying to get as many pictures and information as possible in case anything closes down,” sports editor Joshua Lopez said. “ For example, seeing other sports programs close down at other schools like Western High caused us to look [into] even cover[ing] tryouts due to our worry of getting the sport pages done.”

One of the challenges that the yearbook staff is facing due to the pandemic is getting photos. Although it may be difficult to get pictures during this time, as many coverable events are being held virtually, The Round Up is doing their best to adapt to the circumstances placed on them. 

“Basically, we are covering more current events that have happened since school has closed down like school opening back up and activities being done in quarantine.”

Senior-section editor Keri Pollock

“There’s only so many pages we can work on because a lot of the content we don’t have due to the virus,” Testa said. “I will say that we have a really good staff this year; everyone wants to be here and is willing to put in the work and I think people will see that through the pages of the yearbook.”

While the theme is more centered around the pandemic, in-person events that are now being held virtually can still provide a source of content for the yearbook.  

“Basically, we are covering more current events that have happened since school has closed down like school opening back up and activities being done in quarantine,” senior-section editor Keri Pollock said.

No matter how big of an obstacle that this pandemic may be, The Round Up is still confident that they will produce a complete yearbook that will be just as valuable as the previous ones. 

“I am confident we will produce a yearbook that will cover this unprecedented and historic time, along with fun times. I know people buy their yearbook to hold on to fun memories and look back at high school and say ‘wow’, but [through] this book, students will be able to look back and say ‘wow’ in a different way,” The Round Up Adviser Hailee Yaeger said. “We want this yearbook to not only be quality and up to par with past books, we also want it to be real and share what the student body was going through, good or bad.”

Photo courtesy of Hailee Yaeger