Treasured friendships

Friends Maia Vo, Ankitha Lavi and Esha Sharma teamed up to create a secret birthday scavenger hunt in Jenna Mercado’s backyard. (This picture was taken before the stricter social distancing measures went into effect.)

Carnegie Vanguard High School sophomores (pictured, from left) Maia Vo, Ankitha Lavi and Esha Sharma knew their friend Jenna Mercado would be disappointed that she couldn’t celebrate her 16th birthday with a special night at a rodeo concert. Jenna went out of town for Spring Break, and, the night before she returned home, her friends contacted Jenna’s family for permission to go into the Mercados’ backyard to leave clues for a surprise birthday scavenger hunt. The next day, the three friends FaceTimed Jenna and revealed their top-secret scavenger hunt. They kept her company on FaceTime while she completed the hunt, which ended with her birthday present. See "Happy (Quarantined) Birthday!: Celebrations during the Time of the Coronavirus" by Karen Vine Fuller for more stories of at-home celebrations.

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