Courtesy Photo This photo provided by Sarah Hill shows high school senior Brooklyn Bober posing for a picture at Rogers City High School.

ALPENA — For high school seniors like Brooklyn Bober, graduation means all the years of homework, projects, meetings, and extracurricular activities were worth it.

Taking senior pictures celebrates how far they’ve come.

The coronavirus pandemic has changed all of that.

To prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered all schools to finish the academic year through remote learning, allowing seniors to graduate if they were on track to do so when school shut last month.

With all but the most essential businesses closed, seniors are scrambling to complete typical senior checklists before the end of the year, including senior pictures.

That’s why Sarah Hill, owner of Sarah Nicole Photography, decided to donate free senior photo sessions to Rogers City and Posen seniors.

Hill will offer 10- to 15-minute sessions to snap photos of seniors in their caps and gowns. Hill will schedule photo sessions when Whitmer’s stay-at-home order expires. Right now, that’s expected to happen May 15, though Whitmer already has twice extended the order.

“I can only imagine what these parents and kids are going through, and I wanted to give back to the community as what I could do as a parent,” Hill said. “A lot of these kids I’ve known their whole life, so I wanted to give them the ability to have something for remembrance.”

Bober, the Rogers City high school senior, said she’s grateful for the opportunity to have her senior pictures taken. She said no one in her family has taken senior pictures at a photo session before, besides the usual school pictures taken every year.

“It’s a great way to memorialize the year and the situation,” Bober said. “It’s an extremely hard situation.”

Bober said she wants to pursue a degree in computer-aided drafting and design, along with a degree in welding from Alpena Community College.

Hill has been dabling off and on in photography since 2012.

Hill’s oldest daughter is a junior at Rogers City High School. Hill said seeing what her daughter’s peers are going through helped her make the decision to give back.

“The least I can do is take a couple days of myself and take pictures for them,” she said. “They’re going through a lot, and they deserve something.”

Schedule a session

Call or text Sarah Nicole Photography at 864-360-4207 to be added to the list of participating seniors. Sessions are free for every senior from Rogers City and Posen high schools.