A solo pink spool of ribbon laid across Olivia White’s art room table in pieces around two inches long. Senior Isabel Carlson picks up a safety pin from her pile of 225 and grasps a single ribbon. She carefully folds it, weaves the pin through, and gently sets it down in her pile of many more on May 27 at Superior High school just two days before graduation. 

Carlson reached out to assistant principal Matt Amerson back in January after the passing of her fellow classmate Olivia Denston who had passed earlier in the school year. Carlson was in the same advisory and believed it was important for her to be recognized at graduation. 

“It was important that she was recognized at graduation because she was still a student, worked as hard as everyone else, and she was a very creative and really great person. I feel like just because she’s gone doesn’t mean that we should just put her aside and not recognize her,” said Carlson.

Carlson met with counselor Wendy Nelson and was told what was within the school’s control due to guidelines put in place for the recognition of students who passed. Nelson told Carlson that something that students could do was to make ribbons for people to wear. So she took it upon herself to go out and buy 12 spools of ribbon at Walmart in hopes to make enough for her large graduating class. 

Carlson knew that she would not be able to make them all herself so she delegated the making of some to fellow classmates and friends of Denston. Many helped with making and passing out of the ribbons before graduation. Seniors Madilynn Powers, Liliana Sakuray, Ava Hill, Joliana Lepien, Zakk Holmquist, Wyatt Phillips, LillyAnne Kruse, and others were among the many that helped. In total, nearly 500 ribbons were made with the pink ribbon which was selected because that was Denston’s favorite color.