The Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School grad class of 2024/2025 will be parading through town this Saturday.
Starting at 2 p.m. from behind Save-on-Foods the 66 grads, of 82 graduates total, attending dry grad this year will be driving in their chosen choice of transportation down Birch Avenue on their way to Centennial Park. Dry grad chair Kristy Gosselin said she and her fellow parent volunteers are looking forward to seeing what types of cars, golf carts or tractors the students choose this year.
"I am not sure what to expect this year, but in previous years, students have been quite creative," Gosselin said. "I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with this year."
Following the parade, the grads will be heading to Centennial Park from 2:30 to 4 p.m. for group and individual photos. Their family and members of the public are invited to come out and congratulate them as they cross the stage.
"We have local photographer Nikki Fosbery coming to take a professional picture of each student as they cross the stage in their beautiful gowns and tuxedos/suits," Gosselin said. "She will also be taking a group photo of all the grads that are attending."
Following the promenade and photo op in the park, dry grad will get underway at PSO around 6 p.m. Gosselin said that this year the theme of the night, as voted on by the students, is a casino.
To bring this theme to life the dry grad committee has invited (COMPANY here) from Vancouver to set up two roulette wheels, two blackjack tables and a poker table. Gosselin stressed no actual gambling with money will take place and that the gaming tables are all just for fun.
New Age Entertainment will be providing a local DJ to emcee the dance with the Red Rock Grill providing the catering for the evening. Gosselin said Williams Lake's KL Photography, owned by a PSO grad with a sister graduating this year, will be providing a photo booth for the grads to enjoy.
"Arcada Rentals has been a huge help. They have been providing PSO grad classes with rentals for many years," Gosselin said. "I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to need and their expertise made the process so much easier! Lastly, we have lots of prizes to hand out to the kids throughout the evening."
To fund the dry grad this year Gosselin, her fellow volunteers and the grads raised just over $30,000 throughout the year. This was done at several events such as running a Haunted House at the South Cariboo Theatre, running concession at the Santa Claus Parade and the Interlakes Outhouse Races, a bottle drive, an online auction, a Jail'N'Bail and the Grads vs Teacher hockey game, to name a few.
"Organizing dry grad is a lot of work. Planning for the day itself is no big deal, I quite enjoy it. It's the fundraisers. Each one is a lot of work," Gosselin said. "Since September when this all started, we have also received many donations from local groups and businesses, without their support none of these fundraisers would do as well as they did."
Gosselin said she'll be happy once the clean-up of the dry grad is done on June 16 so long as the kids have fun. She'd like to thank the community for all their support over the last year.
"As stated above, without this amazing, supportive community, our fundraisers wouldn't be as successful as they were."
