It was perhaps prophetic that the sun shone brightly on Creighton Community School graduates as they linked arms and marched down Main Street.
By all accounts, after all, bright futures await these 33 young men and women.
Creighton celebrated its Class of 2016 last Friday, June 17. It was a bittersweet evening as grads balanced the life-shifting magnitude of the milestone with fond memories of their days at CCS.
“We truly are on the verge of the rest of our lives, and greater things are yet to come,” valedictorian Blair Pietsch said in his address. “After graduation, things are going to get a lot harder, but also some things are going to get a lot better.”
Pietsch praised his fellow grads for their intelligence and strong will, and encouraged them to take chances in life.
Guest speaker Stacy Becker, a former CCS teacher, brought some
advice of her own.
“Kindness will get you far in this world,” she told the grads, who sat in rows on a gymnasium stage beneath a large “Class of 2016” sign.
Becker urged graduates to pursue opportunities with vigour and reminded them that satisfaction can be drawn from different aspects of life, not just a career.
Fifteen graduates shared in more than $36,000 in scholarships and bursaries. Megan Nivon received the most lucrative, Hudbay’s coveted Creighton Scholarship, worth $2,000 a year for four years.
Nivon also earned the highest average of any graduate. The seven scholarships and bursaries she received carried a combined value of $12,175.
In his address to the grads, CCS principal Jason Straile offered gracious words: “May your successes be many and your tribulations be few.”
Later, Straile delivered a speech by Bob Smith, the outgoing Creighton School Division director of education, who was unable to attend.
At one point, loud party music interrupted the Smith speech. Many in the crowd believed an audio malfunction was to blame. When Straile entered the rows of graduates and posed for a group selfie wearing a Batman mask, the premeditated nature of the gag became apparent.
A highlight of the evening came when a slide show lit up the west wall of the gymnasium. Photos of the graduates as children rotated to the backdrop of coming-of-age music, with inspirational quotes mixed in for effect.
The evening began with a formal dinner at the Creighton Sportex. Shortly before 7 pm, graduates marched down a Main Street lined on both sides with parents and friends who were beaming with pride as they snapped photos and took video.
Led by Rod Walker on the bagpipes, the march made a loop to allow the graduates to enter the school gymnasium, where the graduation ceremony took place.
This marked the 10th high school graduation class for CCS. With 33 graduates, the Class of 2016 was nearly twice as large as last year’s graduating class of 17 members.
A complete list of graduates, along with additional photos and scholarship and bursary recipients, will appear in The Reminder’s Creighton graduation edition this Friday.
