The Inter-Mountain photo by Edgar Kelley YouthBuild North Central students Nick Burns, left, and Sarah Ross, center, help Jim Yorkey of the City of Elkins brighten up a crosswalk Tuesday.

ELKINS — Graduation will have a somewhat different feel for the students of YouthBuild North Central this year, as steps have been put in place to prioritize safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Each year the students are honored with a ceremony which family and friends can attend, but this year’s ceremony, scheduled for Sept. 3, will be held outdoors at one of the parks in the county.

“This crew has been with us since January and through the whole shutdown,” said YouthBuild Program Manager Michelle Phares. “What we wanted to do was meet at the Phil Gainer Center and have all the families come, invite speakers, and have anyone else that has an interest in YouthBuild come out. To just cram everyone in that building. But since we can’t do that this year, we thought we would just have a brown bag lunch at one of the parks and do a service project.”

This year’s service project will be beneficial to many local residents.

“When the shutdown happened I got an email from Americorps wanting to know if I wanted some cotton masks,” said Phares. “Thinking a box would (contain) like 50, I asked for two.

“But there are 500 in a box, so I have 1,000 cotton masks in the building. So what we’re going to do for our service project is to have our graduates tie-dye all these cloth masks. And then we’re going to donate them.”

Phares said she would love nothing more than to have a traditional graduation and a service project like many in the past, but with things the way they are right now, extra precautions most be put in place.

“We’re trying to figure out how to do things in a different way and stay safe,” said Phares. “I hate that we can’t include everyone’s family in this, but it’s just not going to work this time.”