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Tevis Diaz said it is the ‘most important yearbook’ she’s ever made.

Source: Francesca D’Annunzio, Special Contributor to Dallas Morning News.

How do you compile a yearbook when around half the students are remote learners and don’t have a traditional school photo? Or when clubs, extracurriculars and in-person events have been canceled?

You find creative ways to fill the spreads with screenshots, at-home learning activities, and masked students working behind Plexiglass, Garland ISD mom Tevis Diaz said.

The longtime yearbook organizer and PTA member knows the importance of memorializing each grade and chapter of life. Pandemic or not, every year has moments worth remembering, Diaz said.

To tell the “story of the year” for Beaver Technology Center’s elementary school students, she used social media posts from teachers and the district, selfies, memes, teachers’ Bitmojis, photos from families of at-home learning activities and pre-designed pandemic spreads from the yearbook company Treering.

“We didn’t have any of our normal events and activities, and I was really struggling to try to figure out what to put in this book,” Diaz said.

Half of the school’s students did not have a photo because most remote learners didn’t attend picture day. Diaz knew she could get photos from parents, but she didn’t want students to feel out of place by not having a professional school portrait, so she had teachers send her selfies instead of using their traditional photos.

She also said some teachers weren’t taking as many photos in the classroom because they felt like it was a year to forget, she said.

“They weren’t taking pictures in the classrooms because … they feel like they weren’t doing anything special,” she said.

Even if hybrid or fully virtual classrooms and canceled extracurriculars aren’t glamorous, they’re still worth remembering, Diaz said.

“A kid just sitting and working at their desk, is a kid behind Plexiglass with a mask and a face shield in a Google Meet classroom. It really tells the story of the year,” Diaz said.

Diaz said the yearbook would not have been possible without the Beaver Technology Center’s collective efforts. The help from parents and teachers made it possible to create a book that documents this year in history for students, she said.

“Our kids are going to be talking about this. And they’re going to have this record of what school looked like,” she said. “I think it’s the most important yearbook I’ve ever made.”

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When COVID-19 canceled traditional opportunities in education, yearbook fundraising benefited students and schools.

SAN MATEO, Calif. — Treering, a technology company that offers high-quality yearbooks at affordable prices, today announced K-12 customer schools across the United States raised $1.6 million with their yearbook fundraising during the 2020-21 school year. The amount surpassed last year by more than $15,000. During a time when traditional fundraising efforts, like walk-a-thons and bake sales, were canceled due to the ongoing pandemic, thousands of schools and yearbook advisers turned to the Treering team to implement a non-traditional but impactful fundraiser.

“Teachers and students globally have endured considerable stress with all of the changes due to the pandemic, and it’s been a privilege to be a helping hand for customer schools across the country in raising additional funds for supplies and extracurricular activities,” said Kevin Zerber, CEO & co-founder at Treering. “Since our inception, we’ve been able to help almost 10,000 schools raise a total of $8.5 million. It’s especially important for us to share resources with schools that are aimed to help them financially – from flexibility in process to fundraising that fits their needs.”

In addition to other cost- and time-saving benefits Treering provides school, it also offers three impactful fundraising opportunities, including:

• Yearbook fundraising made simple: With Treering’s yearbooks being fairly priced from the start, school leaders don’t have to feel guilty about adding an extra fundraising fee to the cost.
• Recognition ad feature: Recognition ads are a great way to recognize students and teachers in every yearbook and create an additional fundraiser for the school.
• Targeting the right businesses: By tapping into the teachers’ and parents’ connections with local businesses, building out a list of prospective advertisers becomes much easier. Most often, local businesses want to support the community and the school and view the ad as a good business opportunity.

It’s easy for schools to accumulate debt with traditional yearbook companies due to the fact that they often insist on minimum order quantities and impose extra fees, leaving schools with leftover yearbooks that are never purchased. With Treering, the company operates at a zero cost to schools, only printing books parents decide to purchase. The affordability, fundraising options, and sustainability initiatives – for every yearbook sold, a tree is planted – Treering is an option for schools that not only want to preserve memories for students, but save money.

For more information about Treering, visit https://www.treering.com/. For more information about Trees for the Future, visit https://trees.org/.

About Treering
Established in 2009, Treering is a technology company that offers high-quality yearbooks at affordable and transparent prices by updating the outdated yearbook industry to allow for inclusivity, flexibility, and sustainability. For more information about Treering, please visit: treering.com.

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