It was an ordinary day. Opening carton after carton of Landis Run Intermediate School 2021 Yearbooks. They had just arrived at the school and I had received an email from Carly who is a secretary at the 9-year-old school in the Manheim Township School District in Neffsville, Pennsylvania. I taught at the school district's High School for many years and was advisor to the high school yearbook for 32 years. Upon retirement from teaching in 1999, I took over the Middle School Yearbook (grades 6-8) and produced that book until 2019. Nine years ago I was asked to take over the Landis Run Yearbook, along with the Middle School yearbook, since the school was just opening and they couldn't find anyone to be in charge of the school's yearbook. Last year I gave up the Middle School Yearbook due to a few medical problems and the fact that they had a teacher who was willing to take over the book. When I arrived at the Landis Run School this morning to open the just-delivered yearbook boxes, I realized it was the 61st yearbook I had produced for the Manheim Township School District.
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| The Landis Run Intermediate School 2012 Yearbook |
Now, I tell you this, since this year's book is perhaps the most memorable book I have ever worked on...except for perhaps my very first high school yearbook. This year's book had no club photographs, no sports photographs, no band-orchestra-choir photographs, no musical-play photographs and very few candids. Why? Because there were no clubs, no sports, no band-orchestra-choir and no musical due to COVID-19 and the fact that a large percentage of the school's children were kept at home by their parents for on-line learning. The 64-page yearbook was reduced to 56 pages due to the loss of content in the book. Those students who did have a class photograph taken by a company photographer all have their class photograph in the yearbook, but many who were schooled online did not have a photograph taken or offer a photograph of themselves to be placed in this year's yearbook. Class photographs were increased in size to take up more page space and fewer candids filled the rest of the book, since I chose not to visit the school as many times to take the candids photographs. All the candid photographs I did take showed students with a face mask in place, thus many are hard to tell whom they may be. I did include the names of those that never had a photograph taken by the school photographer or turned one in to the office that was submitted from home. For the previous 8 years I would make perhaps a visit every two weeks to walk the halls and classrooms to take candids. After snapping each candid I would hand my clipboard to the student for them to write their name so their candid could be identified in the yearbook. This year I chose not to do so since I didn't want to have to touch the pen and clipboard after each student would touch it. I made very few trips, therefore there are fewer candids in the book. Now, with all that being said...the book did turn out very nice and will perhaps be the most memorable yearbook this year's class will ever have in their collection of school district yearbooks.  |
| Two of the pages in the yearbook. |
I did have a double-page spread titled "LIFE AT LRIS DURING COVIE-19" telling about the virus and how it affected school participation and the lack of extra-curricular photos in the yearbook. An English teacher in each grade helped me by having their students participate in writing a story about what their life was like during the pandemic. The book featured 20 of the stories which were very well written. I'm glad that the school chose to continue with the yearbook this year, since it will tell the story of the past year better than anyone else could ever tell it. And...the book will definitely be one-of-a-kind! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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