While there were some sporadic showers and gusts of wind blowing across the parking lot of the South Cariboo Recreation Centre, the grad students of Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School still enjoyed a reverse parade put on by the people of 100 Mile House.
While it may have broken tradition, the grad class of 2020 will always be able to say they had one of the most unique -grad-parades in the history of 100 Mile House. COVID-19 restrictions necessitated reversing the parade with the community driving by the grad students waving signs and shocking their horns as they stood waving in their Sunday best.
Members of the 100 Mile Fire Rescue, RCMP and Dawson Road Maintenance were on hand to help organize the proceedings and direct traffic as at least a 100 cars drove around the grad students assembled in the parking lot of the rec centre. This allowed the parade attendees and the grads to social distance while still being able to gather in large numbers.
It was an effort the class of 2020 appreciated according to Katelynn Hill one of the roughly 80 students that make up her graduating class. Hill said she loves people and plans to go into early childhood development education and work for an organization like StrongStart in the future, in part because of her memories of her own kindergarten teacher.
She said it was really nice to see the community come out and support them and see such a large turnout, despite the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and concerns.
“It meant a lot because graduation is such a big part of everybody’s life or at least my life, parents, families and any community members who have seen so many of us grow up,” Hill said. “It’s just amazing.”
Overall while their last year of high school was unexpected, she said they have a great group of grads full of nice people who are all friendly with one another. Hill joked that she’s the hype of the group being the one dancing but said her friends were really happy to see one another again and show off their outfits.
If they ever have to do a reverse grad parade again, Hill said she might suggest them picking a different location then the rec centre parking lot.
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