St. Louis, Bellevue and Domremy grads were given a special watery salute by the local fire department. (Submitted/Dianne Broom)

By Glenn Hicks

Grad 2020

St. Louis grads honoured in style

Jun 13, 2020 | 5:00 PM

No matter what corner of the province and how small the community, this is a special time for Grade 12s. And despite the restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the classes of 2020 in St. Louis, Bellevue and Domremy, got the full treatment courtesy of the St. Louis Fire Department.

The grads from the three communities were paraded through the streets by the firefighters, while residents lined the routes in their front yards. With sirens blaring the proceedings were wrapped up with a crescendo of water from the engines’ deck turrets over the assembled groups.

“I really feel that the community came together, and it was very heartwarming,” Fire Chief James Brake told paNOW. “Some people even said it was better than the conventional Grad.”

The St. Louis Fire Department led the parade around the three communities. (Submitted/Janine Phaneuf)

Brake said he wasn’t really sure what he was going to do beforehand, but decided to use the water deck turrets on the two engines to make what he described as a sort of ‘crossed sword symbol’ over the groups in St. Louis and again in Bellevue.

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“I just thought in my heart it’s a very visual representation of them underneath the [water] stream and, as you see in the video, there’s a partial double rainbow. It was symbolic and a way of honouring them,” he explained.

Plenty of noise, fun and pride. Each student was driven in a pickup truck to comply with social distancing. (submitted/Dianne Broom)

One of the grad moms, Lynn Boyer, helped organize the cavalcade in St. Louis which involved each student being driven in their own pickup truck. She, like so many other grad moms across the region and beyond, saw the need to try to make the day special, given the absence of formal ceremonies this year.

“We just didn’t want their graduation to go by unnoticed, uncelebrated,” she said. “So, we threw a little parade for them.”

Her daughter, Elizabeth Pala, said she and her fellow grads enjoyed it all, given the lack of other organized formalities.

“It was really nice, especially because most of us [grads] didn’t think we were going to get anything, period,” she said. “It was a great way to connect with the community while respecting the social distancing guidelines. We were in luck because everyone had a truck to use.”

And Pala – who will study nursing at the new single U of S campus in Prince Albert from the fall – pondered whether the truck cavalcade and perhaps the fire department’s involvement can become something of a new tradition.

“It was definitely a great, new experience and I think it’s something future grads will look to do to enhance their own Grad,” she said. “That would be pretty cool to see that in the future.”

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow