All-Knighter organizers celebrate East Valley grads virtually and personally

In a typical year, many high school seniors gather with their classmates for an all-night celebration as they prepare to graduate.

This is not a typical year but the organizers of the East Valley High School All-Knighter were determined to do something to celebrate the achievement of their senior students and came up with an event that was a mix of the virtual and the personal.

Students signed into a four-hour Zoom meeting last Thursday while teams of volunteers visited their homes to deliver pizza, wings and prizes.

Sandy Hosking is the chair of the all-nighter committee and in March she was ready to go. “All I had to do was finish ordering the prizes and order the food,” she said.

Then the COVID-19 outbreak upended everything. Schools shut down. Gatherings were prohibited. “Everything went into a tailspin,” she said.

Hosking and her committee debated multiple possibilities. Should they wait and try to hold an in-person event later in the year. Should they move it to Idaho? In the end they settled on a virtual event.

“Ultimately we decided we just didn’t know what the future would hold,” she said.

Hosking has a background in theater where organizational skills are key.

“I know how to put a variety show together,” she said. “I’ve produced a lot of shows, but nothing to this scale.”

She created trivia games and booked entertainers, including “danger act” Brady Byers, a local resident known for his sword-swallowing appearance on “America’s Got Talent.” It all happened on Zoom.

“He’s just going to be doing this in his home,” she said of Byers. “It’s a special show just for them.”

Several teachers also got involved and “graciously volunteered to be victim to do a dare,” she said.

Prizes are a mainstay of all-nighters and this was no different.

“We want the kids to get something, too,” she said. “That’s where the prize delivery crews come in.”

She sent out a catalog of prizes to the seniors who signed up to participate in the event and allowed them to pick their top three choices. Most ranged in price from $35 to $50. Some larger ticket items, including a television, were also raffled off.

“The kids don’t know who is getting what,” she said.

East Valley High School Assistant Principal Kevin Weberg and his wife, Gina, decorated their truck and hit the road just after 8 p.m. They had a list of homes to visit, some with just one student but some with two or more.

Hosking said students were allowed to gather in small groups if they felt comfortable with that. “That’s something they chose on their own,” she said. “That was up to them.”

The Webergs’ son is a senior, and they wanted to be involved, Kevin Weberg said. “I’m just a dad right now,” he said.

Horn blaring and green balloons flying, they pulled up in the driveway of their first stop, a home just a few blocks from the high school. Seven members of the cross-country team had gathered inside for the Zoom all-nighter They spilled out the front door to collect their bags of gifts.

Ben Fetters signed up for the All-Knighter after it was switched to a virtual event. Given the circumstances, he said he appreciates that there was an event at all. He received a comforter set for his college dorm room and a couple of other prizes. “I see a $20 bill in there,” as he held up his bag of prizes.

Carter Hosking, Sandy Hoskin’s son, got a corn hole game and a cutlery set. “I got a kitchen set for life after college,” he said. “Getting prizes delivered is pretty cool.”

He said he also appreciated the drive -thru graduation that the school organized.

“It was honestly super fun,” he said.

Fetters agreed and said he liked that they got to skip the boring speeches. “This was a lot more fun than my sister’s graduation that I went to,” he said.

Sandy Hosking spent the night in her living room orchestrating the meeting. “I have this dedicated group of volunteers who have all pitched in,” she said. “I couldn’t have it done without them.”