Over the weekend and on Friday a number of Mountain View School Division schools held parades to congratulate their graduates.
MVSD Superintendent Dan Ward thinks they went well and was even in attendance at the Roblin parade on Saturday.
“It was a great event. I have to say, that for the most part, all of these events are community initiatives put on by the grads and the parents. The schools have been very supportive, but these are really events that originated in the community, by community members, by parents, trying to find a way to recognize the grads during this, obviously difficult time.”
Ward says the great turnouts of the parades recognize the hard work and resilience of the grads. He adds that the community support has been overwhelming and thinks the grads feel it.
“I think it was really, a meaningful event and from the folks that I’ve talked to, really appreciate it.”
Ward says the parades provided a general sense of closure.
“That sense of closure, that’s what I’ve heard from the community, from our teachers, from our school administrators, was something that was truly appreciated and so the division truly appreciates the work of each school, of those groups of parents and those grads that put something together because there’s a process around that obviously that had to ensure that participants were safe, but also appropriately commemorated and celebrated.”
The division will look at potentially making grad parades a yearly tradition.
“This pandemic has obviously been difficult, but we’ve learned from it, we’ve done things differently, and there’s certain things that we’ve done that we might want to hold onto and there’ll certainly be a conversation around some of the celebratory things we did at the end of the year, in terms of hanging onto them.”
Ward has a message for the 2020 grads.
“Just want to pass on my congratulations to all of our graduates, roughly about 220 across the division. Just really humbled by the work of our families and our grads during this difficult time and just wish everyone the best.”
There are still some grad parades coming up throughout the Parkland and you can click here for a full breakdown of when and where you can get out and show your support.
