Getting the DHS 2019-20 yearbook together takes a little ingenuity

How do you put together a high school yearbook when nearly a third of the year is missing?

"It takes a lot of imagination," says Du Quoin High School yearbook adviser Rebekah Dunavan, "and a lot of thinking way way way outside the box."

Dunavan, who also advises for the Magnavox student newspaper, has been doing a lot of thinking about the 2019-2020 Flashlight, the high school yearbook, from her home office.

She's been talking with her publisher at Balfour and has gotten some ideas from online forums with other high school yearbook advisers.

"We're all in the same boat," she says. "I have a pretty good idea what it's going to look like, but of course, everything is subject to change."

Dunavan said the first part of the yearbook is what you would normally see - candid photos and action shots from fall and winter activities. The big cut comes right after the Sweetheart Dance in February.

"I've got pictures of all the kids dancing," and then boom, nothing, she said.

Giving spring sports teams their due in the yearbook is a pickle. Dunavan doesn't even have team photos, since those were all scheduled to be shot a week after the stay-at-home order was announced.

What Dunavan and her forum have come up with is taking shots of the empty playing fields, and running interviews with the athletes on top of the photos. Her student yearbook staff is helping with the interviews as much as they can, but not all of her kids have the internet at home.

The other touchy subject is the coronavirus itself and how it turned 2019-20 into a year to remember, not necessarily for good reasons. Dunavan is still deciding how to address that.

Sales of The Flashlight are up this year.

"We've seen a big increase in sales this year," said Dunavan, who hopes that the virus will wane enough that the students can eventually come pick up their books at the school and have a signing party.

She said the date when the yearbooks will be delivered is a little fuzzy. The Balfour printers are currently sheltering at home, she said, but once the quarantine is lifted they'll be printing 24/7, the company told her.

Once she gets the pages submitted, Balfour will turn The Flashlight around in six to eight weeks, they said.