The coronavirus pandemic may have cancelled some senior activities for Lauderdale County High School student Connor Garrett, but it hasn’t cancelled his spirt to help others.

Garrett was one of the first to sign up for a senior class project asking his classmates to video call senior citizens at Limestone Health Facility in Athens and Lauderdale Christian Nursing Home. Garrett saw the project as a way to encourage those who can no longer enjoy face-to-face family visits due to the risk of infection.

“I couldn’t imagine losing everyone all at once and just having someone to lock the doors and say, ‘No. Nobody can come in,’” Garrett said. “I wanted to give them a sense of hope and tell them that, even though they don’t have any one to talk to, this is a small bump in the road.”

Lauderdale High Principal Casey Tate organized the project after learning about Limestone Health Facility’s efforts to buy devices so their residents can connect with family members. At the same time, state school officials were trying to figure out how the rest of the school year would look like.

Tate then sent a message to the entire senior requesting them to video call nursing home residents.

“I thought, ‘Let’s put these seniors and connect them with those senior adults and try to brighten everybody’s day,’” Tate said.

Tate thought the project was a good way build hope between two generations of people who were both experiencing losses due to the outbreak. Nursing homes are not allowing visitors because people 65 or older are more likely to suffer severe symptoms if they get the virus. Tate said schools closed around the same time students were preparing for the highlights of senior year, like prom and graduation.

Students were upset during their last day in the school building on March 13. It was a date Tate said he will never forget. A senior baseball player cried in his office as he asked about the reminder of the season.

“He asked, and he was crying, ‘Is it over?” Tate said. “It just tore me up. That’s the world to them. At that point we were hoping to still have a season, but it was all taken away. It’s heartbreaking.”

Lauderdale Christian Office Manager Annette Parker said the outbreak quickly changed the routine for the 58 residents at the nursing home, which closed its doors to visitors on March 9. Less than a week later, all activities were cancelled, and the residents now have to eat in their rooms.

“No one every knows what’s going to happen next,” Parker said.

But the project has cultivated a sense of optimism for both the residents and the 30 high schoolers who participated in the project. During their conversations, the senior citizens gave the students advice as they told their own stories. Janet Purser, who is in her late-60s, told a student about going to college to become a social worker despite having muscular dystrophy. Parker said Purser wasn’t hired due to her disability, but she now does social work at the nursing home.

“I think that helped (the high school students) a little bit to see that even with her disabilities, she still finished high school and college,” Parker said. “She gave them the advice to go on and get their education and to do something productive with their lives.”

Parker said one of the residents cried as she talked about not being able to see her sons and grandchildren.

Garrett learned to never take a hug from his grandmother for granted as he chatted with a resident at the Athens facility. They talked about the resident’s love for University of Alabama, where Garrett plans to go to medical school.

The conversation reminded Garrett of his own grandmother. Garrett still visits his grandparents to help them out with chores because his grandfather is a disabled veteran who takes cares of his grandmother, who is recovering from a stroke she had in 2011. He is used to hugging his grandmother, but that’s now forbidden due to social distancing rules.

“It’s just like the little things that we can’t do anymore,” Garrett said. “I would have never thought I would really miss hugging my grandma this much.”

Tate has been trying to keep the senior class uplifted by sending them positive messages. It’s not how the students wanted their school year to end. But they can still find opportunities to turn their grief into hope during this unprecedented moment.

“You are writing history right now. It’s up to you how you want to write it,” He tells them.

Are you a high school senior who wants to leave their mark on history? Al.com is collecting essays, videos and pictures from high school seniors to create a virtual yearbook! You can click here to learn how to participate.