Estevan Comprehensive School Grade 12 students might not have a traditional graduation ceremony again this year, but what a group of parents taking the initiative has planned for them sounds great, too.
The ongoing pandemic still restricts all large crowd events, however, when it comes to graduation ceremonies, it seems that the restrictions only push the creativity and imagination further to ensure that such a big day gets properly celebrated.
This year a group of Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) parents, in consultation with the students, decided to host a bubble parade that will start at 7 p.m. on June 19.
Stacey Wempe, who is a part of the parent group organizing the event, said they already received approval from the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and are now getting the route and other details clarified and approved by the City of Estevan.
"What we did is we gave (graduates) two choices. We head to Woodlawn where they could sit and have a drive-by, I mean be at Woodlawn for a couple of hours and have people drive by you, or the parade. The students voted on the parade," Wempe told the Mercury.
Both parents and students liked last year's cruise night concept. The only con to it was that the 2020 graduates didn't get to showcase their tuxedos and dresses. So this year grads opted for a different format.
"It's called a bubble parade," Wempe said. "(Grads) are going to go in groups of eight or 10. We're going to be decorating floats. So we are getting trailers for each group, and we're going to be decorating them. And we're going to have the parade route."
There won't be one common theme to the parade, but each float will have its own style. With 166 students graduating this year, there will be about 20 decorated floats.
"People are donating their trailers and trucks, and then we're just decorating them," Wempe said, adding that A Loving Touch Florist agreed to help parents with decorating the floats.
Students will also get to participate in decorating and will have fun in their bubbles.
The parade is the parents' initiative, and they hope that residents and businesses will join them in trying to make this day special for the kids by decorating their storefronts and houses and also coming out to see the procession.
"It'll be good for them. It's something to make them feel special because Grade 12 is a milestone. So we thought, 'Well, okay, what can we do that is acceptable?' And I really liked this idea," Wempe said.
"Last year businesses decorated their windows. So I know, for our business, we're going to decorate the windows and put a sign out to make it really special for them," Wempe said.
Throughout the grad day, Affinity Place will have two touchless photo booths, cleaned on regular basis, and four spots decorated for students to take pictures there as well.
Also, in memory of Wempe's family members, they will give each graduate a $50 gift voucher to a local business.
“To honour the Graduates of 2021, I wanted to give them a special gift of $50 to spend locally in our community. The voucher is in memory of my parents Mel and Margaret Grimes and my brother Clinton Grimes. The grads have always had a special place in our heart. We are very blessed to be in a community, which supports Bring Your Kids to Work Day and the hiring of teenagers, allowing many of our local businesses to watch them flourish. The local community businesses have supported their events for many years. Because of this support I encourage the grads to support the many businesses in our community,” said Wempe.
People can also get lawn signs for the graduates. The deadline to order those is June 4 and the contact is Linda Gudmundson at [email protected]. Besides, people can upload grads’ pictures to the website. There are logos that can be used to print and decorate store fronts or windows.
All details about the upcoming event can be found at estevanclassof2021.com or Grad 2021 Estevan Graduates’ Parent Facebook page. A Zoom call was held May 25 to work out more details, and those who missed it or have any further question can reach out to the group of parents organizing the event at [email protected] or call Wempe at 306-421-9923.
The organizers are accepting donations. All further information can be found at the website. They are also in need of 15 trailers. If anyone can help out the contact is Tanya Gervais at [email protected].
Make sure to check future editions of the Mercury for the route and other details about the grad bubble parade and other grad activities.
