VERGENNES TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — A senior will graduate from Lowell High School Thursday night with perfect attendance since young fives.

Evan Blazo accomplished the feat and was awarded a framed certificate for the achievement.

He has finished classes for the year but returned to the building on Tuesday to discuss the challenges of keeping a perfect attendance record.

“It took a lot of perseverance sometimes in the morning just getting up every day,” Blazo said. “A lot of luck with not getting sick too bad. I’ve always been able to come into school and I’ve always had to schedule doctor’s appointments, dentist appointments right after school.”

Blazo acknowledges there were times when the goal could have easily been derailed.   

“There were a few close calls I guess with like missing the bus or potentially being late in the morning but I always made it on time,” Blazo said. 

While his family helped keep him on track, Blazo says it was an important goal he wanted to achieve.

“Every year they would give you an award for perfect attendance and I just decided at some point that I wanted to try and do that every year and it just kept going,” Blazo said.

Evan Blazo had perfect attendance throughout his time at Lowell Area Schools.
Evan Blazo had perfect attendance throughout his time at Lowell Area Schools.

The COVID-19 pandemic made achieving his goal even harder. Blazo is probably the only student thankful for being sick over school breaks.

“I was definitely nervous about getting sick but luckily I’ve had COVID twice. It was both over Christmas break so I got really lucky there,”  Blazo said.

Steve Gough, the principal, said they have had only two other students get perfect attendance in high school over the last five years and were only able to find one other student in recent history that had perfect attendance from kindergarten through 12 grade.

“Really amazing and just thinking about how often the schedule changed at that time. Just staying on top of it and staying committed and making sure that he was here. It definitely is a bigger accomplishment,” Gough said.

Blazo hopes other students are inspired by the accomplishment no matter how challenging it may be. 

“They don’t believe it at first and then they usually ask me if I ever get sick and if my parents made me go to school,” Gough said.