Masuk Free Press

This past Friday, Masuk High School’s Class of 2027 had the opportunity to watch the sun rise over the school’s stadium with their friends, their food, and their school family. After crossing the first day of school off their checklists, Masuk’s seniors did so again on Friday as they watched the sun rise over the horizon.

Schools across the country follow this longtime tradition, but Masuk goes the extra mile. Masuk staff donated their time and food to help make this event more special, with breakfast including Dunkin’ Munchkins and breakfast sandwiches being provided.

“I think it’s an awesome opportunity for the seniors to get together and celebrate the beginning of their senior year at the beginning of a beautiful day,” said Laura Massey, the senior class adviser and English teacher at Masuk. “I was so surprised in the senior class meeting when we talked about the different raffle prizes you guys are going to get and all the different sponsorships and shows of support. I think it’s just an amazing start to the year.”

Students arrived bright and early before 5:45 a.m. and made their way to Benedict Field, where they were greeted by Mr. Swensen and the table of breakfast foods.

“I was so excited to get to school this morning; even though it was super early, it was still nice to see my friends and get pictures of us and the sun,” said senior Allie Troiano.

So much time and planning went into creating this event by the Class of 2027’s student government and the Masuk administration itself before the school year even started.

“One of the things that we did was cut out one of those picture frames, which is pretty standard; a lot of people did that for Senior Sunrise. We are also having it at 5:45 this year, last year it was at 6 a.m.,” said Senior Class President Daniel Fontana. “That was Alisa Ghani’s idea because she thinks that it gives people a little more time to talk to each other and a little more time for participation before the sun actually rises. The last thing that we did this year is having breakfast sandwiches and raffle tickets at Senior Sunrise, and that’s because last year they did the barbecue, but Mr. Swensen said nobody went so we decided to merge the barbecue and the sunrise into one big thing, so hopefully more people go.”

In addition to the food, students had the opportunity to take a raffle ticket, with prizes being donated by restaurants and businesses across the Monroe area.

  “Even though we had to wake up at the crack of dawn, I still looked forward to watching the sun rise with my friends and the class in general,” said senior Mikayla Gill.

Many people were surprised with how quickly the event ended, but it’s not the length of the event that matters, what matters is what it means to the senior class.

“I would say this is one of the easier events. A lot of work was put in by Mrs. Bartek, Mr. Swensen, getting the sandwiches and doing the raffles and looking around town, but for us,  we’re going to the field and watching the sunrise. We put up some Instagram advertisements, and we made the sign. I mean, sure it’s a lot of work, but probably not compared to Hoco or prom or something like that,” said Fontana. “I think it’s a great event and everybody should go, a lot of people I ask are like ‘it’s too early,’ but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing you gotta go to, you’re only a senior once.”

The prizes were announced later in the day, with one lucky student winning an iPad. Others received gift cards to restaurants and other services in town, such as a car wash. Though Senior Sunrise marks the start of their final year of high school, it also reminds seniors of the good things to come. Soon, they’ll get to enjoy Spirit Week, the bonfire and the Thanksgiving football game, so let’s all get ready for an eventful final year at Masuk.