4 min read

NAPLES — You’d think it would be hard to convince a bunch of teenagers to get up before dawn and go hang out at their school on the last day of summer vacation. Not at Lake Region.

Around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, a steady stream of cars curled around the back of the high school and parked behind the bleachers on the football field. Light glowed from the concession stand, where parents and teachers were setting up punch bowls of fruit and boxes of doughnuts for the seniors.

The students filtered in wearing sweatpants and flannel pajamas, some with full faces of makeup and many carrying plastic cups with brightly colored beverages from Aroma Joe’s.

Jordyn Green, one of the first to set up a blanket on the track around the field, didn’t have any trouble waking up in time.

“My roosters crow at 4,” she said.

Because the rural school district is so spread out among the towns of Naples, Casco and Bridgton, it’s not uncommon for classmates to go all summer without seeing one another. That was the main motivation for many of 70-some students who showed up that morning — to be with their friends.

The tradition of holding a Senior Sunrise only started a couple years ago. The teachers assume it was something a student saw on TikTok. However it began, at Lake Region High School, traditions tend to stick.

Many seniors had already been back on school grounds this summer to paint the parking spots they were assigned last spring, with designs and quotes they likely had been planning for even longer. Ian Carlson, an art teacher and senior class adviser, said his sons, who are in elementary school, asked him to drive through the parking lot so they could see the artwork.

In a few weeks, it will be homecoming, when there’s always a bonfire, pep rally and competitions among the classes that get all the students involved, not just the athletes, Carlson said.

Soon, he’ll meet with members of the class of 2027 to figure out what other events might make their final year memorable, culminating with a Senior Sunset on a hillside nearby.

Macey Serfes and Ryan Charette, who’ve dated on and off since middle school, plan to be down in Louisiana or Mississippi by then. They should have enough credits to graduate early, and he already has a job lined up through a friend, setting up staging for concerts. She wants to go to school for social work.

They sat together near the back of the track on a blanket covered with moose and pine trees. He wasn’t sure what inspired him to get out of bed that morning. For her, it was “an excuse to get Dunkin’ Donuts.”

Several of the seniors already have plans to move far away after the school year.

Sid Young, who went to a camp at Maine Media Workshops in Rockport this summer, wants to go to California to study filmmaking.

Riley Boutilier and two of her friends are moving to Texas, where their boyfriends who already graduated live. She said she’s glad to be getting out of her small town, but she knows she’s going to miss it, too.

Posing with posters cut out into picture frames, groups of friends snapped photos with their digital cameras, which they prefer to the ones on their phones, though it’s hard to explain why exactly. It’s not that they’re trying to wean off their devices. The new statewide school cellphone ban is one thing they’re dreading this year.

The seniors took some pictures all together, then broke back up into smaller groups, with a few veering off on their own.

Young, the aspiring filmmaker, doesn’t go to many school events but felt like the sunrise was one he shouldn’t miss. Usually a late riser, he stayed up all night instead and was outright giddy.

“This is great. Look at this!” he said, gesturing to the pink and orange hues swirling in the sky and his classmates scattered on the field below it.

The sun itself never came into sight, and when the clouds took over, it became clear that it was time to go. Some of the seniors made plans to meet up at friends’ houses afterward. Others said they were going right back to bed.