MELFORT — With the cancelation of the 2019-20 school year, graduates, as well as their parents and communities, are left wondering how they can celebrate their special day.
A group of concerned moms wanted to ensure their graduates are celebrated by the city and sent suggestions of public events that the city could do to honour the 98 students graduating from Melfort and Unit Comprehensive Collegiate. One suggestion was an August parade where every grad had their own float.
The suggestions were presented to city council at its May 4 meeting.
According to Rick Lang, Melfort’s mayor, the city will have to discuss their options with the Saskatchewan Health Authority before making any decisions regarding the festivities.
“They make the rules, as far as any of that kind of stuff so we'll wait for an answer from schedule and help and then we'll reply to the letter... The rules from Saskatchewan health are in place that we have to follow.”
Corinna Stevenson, co-chair of the Melfort Graduation 2020 Parent Committee, said activities will be dependent on the Health Authority but also on the wishes of the graduates and what they want to do. Input has been pretty conclusive, Stevenson said, with the majority of graduates wanting to keep the festivities simple, even before COVID-19 changed the 2019-20 school year.
“In January or February when we began the planning process, one of the things that our committee is proud of is that we use electronic voting to have all of our grads participate and vote on what it was that they wanted.”
This year’s class wants a simple celebration with the majority of the class wanting to focus being with family and friends, Stevenson said.
“Before we pursued anything we wanted to know, first and foremost, being socially responsible was key to us. A viable option [may be] just postponing the event. It's not ideal. We all want to celebrate our graduates.”
Jerry Heffernan, Melfort and Unit Comprehensive Collegiate’s principal, said this year has been disappointing for the graduates, including his youngest son, but they will still be having a virtual grad ceremony on June 29 at 10 a.m. Heffernan hopes they will still be able to do something in person but it may not be until the fall or winter.
“Our hope is that someday we'll be able to do something in person. It might not be exactly what our traditional grad will look like.”
What will not change is the format of grad with speeches from the students, Heffernan, Lang, and a member of the Board of Education, as well as celebrating the generosity of the community by “handing out” scholarships.
