As the parent of a Lynnwood High School senior and a sports photographer for local high school events, Scott Williams has seen directly how school closures related to the COVID-19 outbreak have affected the Edmonds School District’s Class of 2020.

“My social media has been full of senior athletes missing their last opportunity to compete,” Williams said. “Full of their parents missing watching their senior play, but also concerned about their senior and all of the other rites of passage they are missing out on. Parents who have become more and more eager to do something to make their senior feel special and recognized.”

“Having a senior softball player at Lynnwood who was really looking forward to prom, I was seeing and feeling that first hand,” he added.

In response, Williams decided to create Class of 2020 yard signs — customized by high school — for seniors and their parents to display.

“It’s not a necessarily novel idea,” Williams explained, adding that a few national printing companies are offering similar signs. “I have a photographer friend in Blaine that is doing it with success in her community up there, so wanting to give parents something to do for their senior, I asked her if she minded me giving it a try down here,” he said.

In launching the idea, Williams — who takes sports photos for Lynnwood Today, My Edmonds News and MLTnews as well as shooting team photographs for high schools, figured he might find “a small handful” of interested parents.

“I was wrong,” he said. “They have been incredibly popular.” Williams also said he has received “many messages of thanks” for the signs.

“It’s just a small way of recognizing seniors for the work they’ve done in getting to this point in their lives and that it hasn’t gone unnoticed, even in these craziest of times we find ourselves in,” Williams added.

The signs are still available — $25 for them to be delivered to your door or $20 if you pick them up. Ordering information  can be found here.