WEYBURN – The graduates of Weyburn Comprehensive School were encouraged to support one another and help each other to soar like the school’s mascot, the eagle.
This was part of the message from principal Ryan Fowler at the graduation ceremonies, held under cloudy skies on Saturday outdoors at Darold Kot Field.
Parents, family members and friends gathered on the field, with the parents able to sit on chairs set up behind the grads, and hundreds of people brought lawn chairs and filled the bleachers to take in the ceremonies.
The graduates gathered first in the Eagle gym, and were led out by teacher Darren Abel onto the track, and they filed to their seats prior to the start of the ceremonies, rather than having each one called first as was done in the past.
Once they had each been introduced, including a mention of their plans after graduation, Fowler gave his principal’s address, and Weyburn trustee Norma Hewitt-Lendrum brought greetings from the Southeast Cornerstone School Division.
A tribute to parents was given by Tasey Gerle and Chanel Lanz, and the reply was by Tasha Lanz-McIntyre and Michelle Wade.
The tribute to the teachers was by Troy Dickie and Sidney Sidloski, and the reply was by retiring teacher Joanne Jensen.
The graduation choir was led by Holly Butz as they performed two songs, “Like an Eagle” and “I Lived”.
The finale was the valedictory address by Emersyn Jordens before the traditional tossing of the hats.
In his address, Fowler noted that each student was different, with their own beliefs and life experiences, but the commonality they shared was being a Weyburn Comp Eagle. He related how he spent some time with an elder from White Bear First Nation, who explained the significance of the eagle and how sacred it is to the traditions of the first peoples.
One of the stories shared with him was how at a powwow, if a dancer lost an eagle feather in the course of their dance, the event is stopped and they gather around the feather. After a ceremony, the feather is carefully given back to the dancer, and the powwow is then allowed to continue.
This idea of when an Eagle goes down and is helped back up by the community, by family and friends, is the ideal that members of the Weyburn Comprehensive ought to follow in their lives both now and in the years to come as they go out to live their lives, said Fowler.
“When that happens, we all become the highest soaring eagles,” he said.
In the preface to her greetings, Hewitt-Lendrum noted her husband Wilf, who is a teacher at the Comp, was not able to be in class this year as he is undergoing cancer treatment, but is hopeful to be back in the fall.
In her remarks, Hewitt-Lendrum noted the Cornerstone board had recently been given a presentation on how 4-H can be used for school credits. She spoke of the 4-H pledge, and recited it: “I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service and my health to better living, for my club, my community and my country.”
She related each of the points of the pledge to how the graduates should go on to live their lives, and said this is a great goal for them to pursue in every area of life.
