A total of 32 students walked across the floor to graduate from Clearwater Secondary school during commencement ceremonies held at the school Friday evening, June 6.
As in previous years, the community stepped forward to help the grads with their future eduction, contributing a total of $33,850 in scholarships and bursaries for them.
No individual student dominated the rewards. Aiden Sim took home the most, with $5,800 in scholarships and bursaries. He was closely followed by Celina Trainor, with $5,250.
For a complete list of scholarship and bursary winners, see page A8 inside.
Tori Barstow and Chad Bond were the class valedictorians. Their talk was a sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant recollection of the students' time together, and a look forward to what is coming next.
“Graduation is a time to reflect on the past experiences and memories, and to apply them to the future,” they said.
District honor students were Chad Bond, Sarah Dohms and Aiden Sim. The three wore gold cords around their necks to signify that they were in the top percentage of students in the class.
Guest speaker was teacher Brent Buck. He interspersed his speech on serious topics with corny knock-knock jokes.
“It's a big scarey world out there and I'm not one to sugar-coat it,” he told the grads.
He encouraged the students to ask themselves, “Who am I?” If they can work on that question, everything else will become that much easier, he advised.
“Knock-knock.”
“Who's there?”
“You.”
“You who?”
“Yoo-hoo! I didn't know you were so glad to have me as guest speaker.”
Former school trustee Hazel Wadlegger, CSS PAC chair Shelley Sim, and present school trustee John Harwood gave special recognition to School District 73 superintendent Terry Sullivan.
Sullivan is retiring this year after being in the school district's top job since 1999.
Wadlegger said he has always shown an interest in the rural communities and only missed one commencement at CSS while he was superintendent.
Student achievement in this school district is one of the best in the province, Harwood said, and credited Sullivan for it.
In his greetings to the grads, Dr. Sullivan said that the Clearwater are is one of the first places he takes family members when they come to visit.
“Your public education is coming to an end but your lifelong learning is not,” the retiring superintendent told the class.
For more about the grad and prom, plus the full text of the valedictorians' speech, see the insert inside this issue of the Times.