ESTEVAN — The Estevan Comprehensive School's Class of 2023 will have the opportunity to celebrate all of their years of hard work during the school's graduation ceremony on June 17 at Affinity Place.
A total of 154 young people are eligible to participate in the ceremony. Each student will be called up onto the stage, accept their diploma, turn the tassel on their grad cap and step into the next phase of their lives.
The ceremony will start with the processional of the grads into Affinity Place at 2 p.m. Once they are seated, the speeches will begin, with principal Nathan Johnson and valedictorian Conner Piche among those scheduled to address the crowd.
Vice-principal Brian Wright noted Piche had an average of 99 per cent this school year through the second-semester mid-terms.
Plans are coming together well. The decorating committee has been working inside Affinity Place to ensure it will be beautiful.
There will not be a theme for this year, as Wright noted they did away with that last year, while Affinity Place will be decorated in the school's colours of red, white and blue.
"As of last year, we are no longer doing different colours every year, because we are trying to make it more affordable for everyone by reusing decorations year after year," he said.
Wright noted the school printed an additional 200 tickets for this year because they ran out. That will mark the end of ticket sales, because they have reached their capacity of 2,000 tickets available.
He also expects the new scoreclock at Affinity Place will be ready for grad, making it the first community event in which the video panels will be used. Wright hopes photos of the kids could be on the scoreboard during the presentation of diplomas.
Wright said the school has done a good job over the years of reducing the length of the ceremony.
"Grad is a very important day for ECS. It's a way that we recognize the achievements of all those kids. It's also a way of letting the community show their support for those kids."
Once the ceremony is finished, the students will convene at the Estevan Court House for the annual grad photo, which is one of the highlights of the day.
The parents' committee, meanwhile, is organizing the third annual grad parade. The graduates will gather at the Power Dodge Curling Centre's parking lot and will be on 12 truck-and-trailer tandems. Each of the trucks and trailers will have signs with the kids' names so people can see who is riding, and it will be up to the kids to decide if the trailers will be decorated.
The parade will travel north on Souris Avenue North, east on King Street and north on Kensington Avenue. Then it will pass through the ECS parking lot, head south on Spruce Drive, west on King Street and south on Souris Avenue North.
Deanna Tarnes with the parents' committee said they allowed the kids to vote on bringing back the traditional grand march and dance, which was part of the celebrations until 2019, or having the parade. The majority of the kids wanted the parade, she said.
"The parade is fun," said Tarnes. "They like it because of the community involvement … and they get to show off their dresses and suits."
Tarnes said she has seen the parades in the past and has been impressed with how they went and the support from the community.
"I think it's cool that [other] kids can go and see the parade, and then they are excited for when they get to be in the parade, which is why I think this tradition will continue," she said.
