(KMOX) - A Belleville West High School math teacher takes to social media to offer a way to support seniors missing out on prom and graduation.
Alonzo Nelson says one day after a virtual class, a student told him about another adopt a senior program they'd seen on social media and encouraged him to create one. The Facebook group nelson created is called, 618 Adopt a Senior 2020. As of Thursday afternoon, it had more than 5,000 members.
He says 175 students have been adopted and 130 are waiting. Each student has to fill out an application to describe their future plans, either college, work or the military. Then people request to join the group and scroll through and select a student to adopt.
Nelson says supporters are picking a senior to support either financially or through mentoring and even several universities have reached out to offer scholarships. He says some supporters are posting and asking if there are any students planning to attend their alma maters or for students majoring in specific areas like accounting or nursing.
One supporter even asked if any students in the 618 group were single mothers.
"That touched me the most to see how many people came together to support this one senior," Nelson says. ''Because professionals are reaching out who are from East St. Louis, what this is doing is showing the students that people who grew up where they grew up and have become successful and they can too."
The students who have filled out applications to be adopted are from Belleville West, East St. Louis or Collinsville High School.