When commencement was cancelled, we brought graduation to our high school seniors

Pete M. | Franchisee | Miami, Florida, USA

With over 40 graduating seniors throughout our 17 locations, we knew we wanted to find a way to celebrate them during these difficult times.

Graduation ceremonies were cancelled in our community, as elsewhere around the country, but that didn’t stop us from honoring our seniors. The students on our crew have done an incredible job balancing schoolwork and working to ensure our doors could stay open to feed our community during this pandemic. We wanted to do something special for them.

The idea to recognize them in our restaurants came from one of our general managers, Jenny, whose restaurant crew includes 10 high school seniors from one of Miami’s largest high schools, located next door. 

Our operations director arranged for personalized 12-foot banners and lawn signs congratulating our 2020 graduating class. Each restaurant decorated the restaurant lobbies for the whole month of May to mark the occasion and celebrated the crew with social distancing parties. We had a wonderful time honoring the graduates and helping them celebrate this important milestone.

The crew was ecstatic, and the happiness and appreciation from their families was beautiful. Every day, parents, grandparents and friends could be seen driving by the restaurant to take pictures with their graduate and personalized sign. Their reactions remind us why we do things like this – we can make a positive impact on people’s lives with something so simple. Whether we are their first job, summer job or forever job, they will remember this.