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LEE COUNTY, GA --
Friday afternoon, Lee County High School Seniors got a chance to motivate middle school students to finish school in a very creative way.

Lee County High School Assistant Principal Ginger Lawrence says it was time to try a creative approach at tackling the high school graduation rate.

Lawrence says "many of those students haven't been to a graduation. They haven't seen someone in a cap and gown and that might have been their first experience with that and we hope it will inspire them to wear that cap and gown one day."

Lee  County Senior Kayleigh Sullivan says "I think that they're going to want to try and work harder in school and I know that my little sister was excited to see me."

Valdictorian Christian Roland says he didn't mind leading by example. "It's going to make them want to graduate. They see cap and gowns and they want to be in them," he added.

If the cap and gowns aren't enough encouragement to finish school, the Lee County school system has plenty of other resources to help.

Ginger Lawrence says "we have a lot of initiatives to help students graduate. We have an alternative school program. We have high school. We offer credit recovery throughout the day and we have summer school."

We talked to one Lee County Middle School student about the lasting effects of the Senior Parade.

8th grader Shirya Bhatnager says "it was the cap and gowns. It was how happy they looked and how excited they were to see all they young students cheering them on."

Another eighth grader says having the Senior Parade can make a difference.

Amanda Dowling says "I think it will definitely be able to improve the graduation rate because they'll see that there's an end to everything that they are working towards right now.

"If it impacted one child and kept them on the road to graduation, we did what we intended to do," said Lawrence.