Sonora Lands Ford Maverick at Class Act

By Don Eskins

Class Act, a program established to help keep Carlsbad schools' seniors safe and off the highways during graduation night, once again worked its magic—this time for the Class of 2025. The Cavern City reported no traffic-related injuries to CHS seniors on graduation night.

A large crowd of graduating seniors participated in this year's event at the Pecos River Village Conference Center. In order to keep them safe, participating seniors were locked in on Friday night, May 23, from 11 p.m.. to 5 a.m. Saturday morning.

As an incentive to get graduating seniors to participate, Class Act, as always, passed out prizes periodically throughout the night.

The last item given away was the event's biggest prize, a 2025 Ford Maverick pickup donated by Carlsbad Ford, Carlsbad Chevrolet, Forrest Tire, R12 Construction, and B&R Trucking.

Graduating senior Jeremiah Fuentes Sonora, a 2024 Caveman football player and 2025 Caveman state powerlifting champion, said he couldn't be happier about attending this year's festivities.

"In order to get ready for Class Act, I took a nap and drank a couple of energy drinks," said Sonora. "So, staying awake for all the festivities, which were a lot of fun and pretty exciting, wasn't much of a problem for me."

But, as the Class Act's agenda began to wind down, things got even more exciting for the CHS graduate.

"As they prepared to give away the Ford Ranger, they reached down in a bag to select a winner," he said. "When they called out my name, I couldn't believe it!

"I was really surprised," said the former Caveman. "And for a minute or two, I felt like I was going to have a panic attack!"

Sonora, who will attend Southeastern New Mexico College in Carlsbad for his first two years, said his new Ford Ranger fits his plans quite nicely.

"It'll be great driving it back and forth to college. It also gets great gas mileage; that's definitely a plus. But I also plan to make a few trips in it, maybe to check out some other college campuses for my junior and senior years," he said. "Being out on the highway in a new vehicle will be awesome."