Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.
As a staff member at Sycamore Academy, an online school, Yearbook Hero Lisa Ward had yearbook experience. She’s a self-proclaimed pro at the literal cut-and-paste, handcrafted memory books. As a first-year Treering user, she was excited to see students come together virtually to craft and sign each other’s books. With her daughter, Eden, she spent hours looking through templates and art in the Treering library to spark an idea for her own custom pages. The end result was the winning combination of mother-daughter talent, as Eden Will (“She’s the artist,” said Lisa) stepped in to help her mom create an entry for the People’s Choice Custom Pages Design Contest.
Traditionally, custom pages put an additional spotlight on one child. Tell me about putting the spotlight on your support system.
Eden: Mom asked for help.
Lisa: Eden drew out the layout.
Eden: It was a snapshot of the family for the year since we don’t have albums. My cousin just had a baby and now we have a record of this moment in our lives. We have family from CA, to MI, NC, different parts of TX, and OK. After it was finished, we ended up editing it for the participants to include their families so they had their own version. They’ll print for their families.
Why do you think the message of “Family Forever” resonated with hundreds of people on social media?
Eden: That was pretty awesome. The resonating thing is that we reached out to family we don’t always get to see. And they were all interested in being a part of this. It is so hard to get everyone together. The last time I saw everyone together was at my wedding. It was cool to collaborate virtually and make something that will last. Other people found that touching. We live in such a spread-out world.
Lisa: You get the occasional family settled in one place. Technology brings us together.
Eden: We participated in it, even though we weren’t physically together. It’s like we worked together to be together.
What value do custom pages give you?
Lisa: It’s especially helpful for our school. As an online school, we try to get pictures of people during spirit week wearing hats or different colors. We don’t have pictures of kids interacting because we are online. The custom pages help each parent take each and make it their own.
Eden: Even though she’s not a parent of a student, she was able to make it a memorable for this moment in time to make it personal for her.
