SRSS celebrates another drive-in grad ceremony

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This article was published 24/06/2021 (1321 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Graduates at Steinbach Regional Secondary School, while forced to sit in idling cars instead of among their peers in rows of chairs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, still commemorated their senior year in a way which sums up their last academic year of public school: uniquely.

The near-400 graduates of the senior high trickled into the Southland Church parking lot on June 17 donning balloons, magic marker on windows relaying notes of congratulations, and formalwear they hoped to pose in group photos with friends they have known and studied with for years.

Due to public health orders this year the graduation ceremony had students bound to their vehicles with no out-of-vehicle socialization permitted. Despite the mandate, chatter could be heard among the cars and trucks between families and students celebrating the achievements.

Instead of in-person speeches and songs the messages from administrators and senior learners were projected on massive screens placed sporadically through the parking lot to ensure everyone had ample view. Honks followed the well wishes and a moment of silence was held for one of their classmates who passed away in spring, by class valedictorian Sawyer Thiessen.

Thiessen sent off his peers with a speech centering around relentlessness in friendship, family and faith.

“As long as you give your full effort and be relentless you can accomplish anything,” Thiessen said to the sea of vehicles in his prerecorded video.

Instead of receiving diplomas the traditional way, a pandemic-friendly workaround allowed students to exit their vehicles in their suits and dresses to have their photo taken in tents adorned with flowers and ceremonial garb with a diploma sleeve in hand. Students were welcomed back to Southland later that evening for a fireworks display to send them off into post-high school adulthood.