Central Oregon schools get creative to make yearbooks happen amid pandemic

And you can help them out with photos to help illustrate an unusual year

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A visit to Bend's Summit High School at a usually busy time of year on Tuesday encountered an unusually quiet campus. Aside from a few faculty members and some construction workers, the campus was mostly empty, as most students are still attending classes online from home.

A not so great experience, says senior Tanner Taylor.

“It sucks," Taylor said. "Yeah, it’s not fun -- definitely not the best learning environment. And its definitely a lot easier for me to procrastinate when I'm doing all of my homework at my desk, sitting in my room"

To top it all off the yearbook committee has to try and document this year with no students on campus.

Summit High School yearbook advisor Mindy Mendenhall said it hasn't been an easy task.

"We are trying to put together memories in a very memorable year without actually having students on campus," she said. "And that’s a huge challenge."

Despite the challenges, Mendehnhall explained that her staff is coordinating in a distanced manner.

"So actually, I haven’t actually met my yearbook staff yet," she said. "Because of the way they’ve rolled out the six-week plans, I don’t meet my staff until next week."

While last year, school was in session for a long period of time before students moved to remote learning, the yearbook still had a challenge putting together spring semester content.

This year, the school is doing its best to make sure that the out-of-school school year is well-documented.

In fact, they are asking for not only parents and students but also the community to submit pictures of students for the yearbook to use.

The pictures they seek range from students at their jobs, to enjoying their hobbies, to just hanging out with friends and family.

Mendenhall said there's a bit of silver lining to this approach.

"You know, a normal yearbook just has a lot pictures of kids sitting at desks, and we're not doing that," she said. "And so the variety of photos that we're going to get is going to be incredible."

Those who want to submit should go to this website.

The codes are as follows for each school.

Summit School Code: skostorm

Mountain View School Code: cougars

Bend School Code: lavabears

La Pine School Code: LPhawks 

Sisters High: 6493