Graduates celebrated with parade, virtual graduation ceremonies

Tim Brody - Editor

School is out for summer with classes at area schools wrapping up last week.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sioux North High School (SNHS), Sioux Mountain Public School (SMPS) and Sacred Heart School (SHS) held virtual graduation ceremonies to recognize this year’s graduating students.
Throughout the month of June, SNHS and SHS also posted photos of graduating students on Facebook.
Residents may have already seen lawn signs provided by the schools gracing the yards of homes of graduating students.
SNHS also organized a Graduation Parade on June 25, made up of SNHS staff members driving decorated vehicles displaying congratulatory messages, led by the Sioux Lookout Fire Department.
Prior to the parade SNHS Acting Principal Andy Schardt explained, “We’ll be establishing a route around all the grad homes and driving by and honking, hooting, hollering, and waving and congratulating our graduates.”
He said the Graduation Parade was an amazing experience.
“We had such positive energy going into this, wanting to do something special and unique for our graduates. The staff reported that they had a wonderful time and got quite emotional at times, seeing students out with their families, and literally seeing our students for the first time in a long time.
“Some graduates were wearing their grad caps, some were dressed up, all were happy to see us. It was great to see families make an event of it, and still be mindful of social distancing at the same time. We got a lot of immediate positive feedback through various social media platforms, texts, emails etc.
“We ended up driving for two hours and 12 minutes and covered a collective distance of 33.1 km! It was all worth every second!”
The parade was not able to travel out the highway or to Hudson, however the school coordinated with families of those students to have them come into town to view the parade.
Schardt added, “We want to thank Bob Popovic (Fire Chief) who spent time helping to plan the route. Bob and Jason Murphy (thank you) also gave up their time and provided our parade with fire truck escort that helped to add to the fanfare and also keep our parade safe!”
Schardt also commented, “In the spirit of equity, we did communicate with our First Nation partners to try and do the same thing in their communities and as of this writing we haven’t heard back on the success of those yet, but we do know that Lac Seul First Nation is planning to do their parade sometime next week.”
Schardt also informed that grad gift bags were made up and sent to graduating students, “It will have a hat and tassel in there, some sage, as well as a gift with some of the teachings like what to do with the sage and sacred teachings that go along with that; also a copy of a mock diploma.”
Actual diplomas will be issued at a later time.