June 22 was a day of happiness and excitement for the 95 graduates from J. A. Williams (JAWS) High School and the Lac La Biche Outreach program who celebrated their convocation ceremony.
The second full day of summer brought sunny skies and pleasantly warm temperatures, the first part of the Grad 2024 event got underway at noon with a vehicle parade that rolled up Beaver Hill Road and 91 Ave. Families and community members stood along the route, cheering and waving as an assortment of vehicles – from convertibles and pickup trucks to a motorcycle and an army truck – rolled by. The route took the graduating students to the Bold Center and their formal convocation ceremony.
At 1:30 p.m., the graduates, along with guests and local dignitaries, congregated inside the fieldhouse at the Bold Centre for the graduation ceremony. Following speeches by Northern Lights Public School officials, class valedictorian Cidra Kaufman took the stage to speak to her classmates, family members and school staff about the journey and the continuing path forward.
Afterwards, the graduates were called up to the stage one by one to receive their diplomas. In the early evening, there was a supper followed by a grand march. The day of celebration concluded with a dance for the graduates.
Ecole Plamondon grad on June 28
Ecole Plamondon will be holding its convocation ceremony for the 22 graduates of the class of 2024 on Friday, June 28 at 3 p.m. at the Festival Centre in Plamondon. This year's grad class have been learning in temporary classrooms at Portage College since April, after a massive flood caused the closure of the entire K-12 school.
Repairs continue at Ecole Plamondon, which is anticipated to be reopened by the start of the upcoming school year and cost an estimated $2.5 million to fix.
The nine members of the Ecole Beausejour class of 2024 bid adieu on Saturday, June 1 with their graduation ceremony. This included a mass at St. Isadore’s Roman Catholic Church in Plamondon followed by supper and the official ceremony.