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Pratt’s 73 graduates ready to take on life’s challenges
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Principal Dan Sloan presents a blue folder to Amanda Courtorielle for her future diploma.
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Mac Olsen
South Peace News
The theme says it all for the soon-to-be graduating Class of 2009 at E.W. Pratt.
“Our Night. Our Life. Our Stage.”
Lesser Slave Lake MLA Pearl Calahasen echoed such thoughts in her speech during the commencement ceremony May 9.
“Congratulations, you’ve reached one rung on the ladder of success. Your night is now. Your stage is now. I know you will shine on your stage,” says Calahasen.
Joyce Dvornek, chair of High Prairie School District No. 48, encouraged them to remember the good in their lives and keep their dreams close to their hearts.
Town Councillor James Waikle brought greetings on behalf of the Town of High Prairie. Shauna Badger, the mistress of ceremonies, read a letter from Fort McMurray-Athabasca MP Brian Jean, congratulating the students.
Before the speeches, each student and their escort walked down a red carpet and to their seats near the stage.
Two groups of students received gifts during the commencement. In the first group, Megan Bellerose and Charita Laboucan received flowers and gifts from Driftpile First Nation. In the second group, Gerald Cunningham and Susan Cardinal-Lamouche of the Métis Nation of Alberta presented Métis sashes to Jacob Badger, Shianna Bellerose, Navada Campbell, Peter Chalifoux, Amanda Courtorielle, Brendan Cunningham, Brett Cunningham, Janice Cunningham, Trisha Cunningham, Theo Gaudette, Patrick Laboucan and Lenny L’Hirondelle.
The students had their moment on stage as four “class historians” – Meghan Badger, Nicole Henkel, Samantha Severson and Darcie Zabolotniuk – took turns reading their statements for commencement. Each statement described the student’s hopes and dreams, their work or post-secondary education plans, some funny moments in school and praise for family or others who supported them.
Principal Dan Sloan shook hands with each student and presented a blue holder to hold their future diploma. Each student also received a rose provided by the parent graduation committee.
During another presentation, each student gave a rose to someone special to them and there were many hugs and tears.
When it was his turn to speak, Sloan offered many thanks – to the teachers for their influences on the students, to the staff who worked on the commencement ceremony and to the parents who organized the Dry Grad event at the Elks Hall later in the evening. He also congratulated the students and said they are moving on to new goals.
Later, the students watched a multimedia presentation of themselves in informal and often hilarious moments.
One student did not live to graduate, Curt Auger, as he died Oct. 18, 2008 at the age of 18. As a tribute to his memory, there was a multimedia presentation about his life. Nicole Henkel paid homage to him, talking about what he was like and his future plans. Later, Sloan presented a blue holder to his sister, Roxanne Auger.
Valedictorian Kelsey Marquardt alluded to several points in her speech. She says she likes to avoid the clichés found in other valedictorian speeches, yet she finds they are true. Her overall message to the students is to set targets for themselves, build relationships, treat each day as a gift and make the world a better place than when they found it.
At the end of commencement, the students and their escorts went back down the red carpet and out of the gym.
For more photos (printed and unprinted), check out the Prom album
Valedictorian’s speech by Kelsey Marquardt
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Kelsey Marquardt
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Kelsey Marquardt
South Peace News
Good afternoon fellow students, friends and family, teachers and administration.
I am honoured to be here today speaking as your valedictorian. But before I begin, I must thank Rebecca Gibbs for moving away, otherwise it would be her here speaking to you.
I spent a great deal of time considering this speech and trying to make it somehow meaningful, working in our theme, while humorous and all in 5-7 minutes. I knew I really wanted to avoid all the usual clichés found in most valedictorian speeches, such as:
* We are the leaders of tomorrow.
* We came into this school as strangers and are leaving as friends.
* We’ll look back and say that these years were the best in our lives.
* This isn’t the end, it’s a new beginning.
But these clichés are all true. We are the leaders of tomorrow. Some of us will be the executives, policymakers, the elected officials and some of us will be the heads of our households, the head of a 4-H club, hockey coaches.
I think of how we have shown leadership as a class. Lacy Johnson stepping up acting as trainer for the girl’s basketball team when she couldn’t play. Meghan Badger organizing the box socials to fund raise for this grad. Krista Long being our president of student government and organizing and taking part in virtually every event in school.
I considered the ways that E.W. Pratt has developed those leadership skills in us.
Mr. McDonald put together some groups of individuals who should not have been able to work together and it forced us to learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses and to come together to form a productive piece of work.
Mr. Savill let us be guided by our own motivation and we quickly found out how much of it we did or didn’t have.
Next cliché: We came into this school as strangers and are leaving as friends. I am so very proud of the way that we have got along in our Grade 12 year. Even though we remember the school yard fights that we had in elementary school, we have moved beyond these squabbles and have forgiven each other. That means I have forgiven you, Ryan Badger – in case you don’t remember, we were walking to the swimming pool in Grade 4 and you kicked me, but we won’t dwell on the past.
In actuality, this is the one point that I very much wanted to make, is to point out that our petty differences have faded. I am so proud of the way that we have come together as a class and appreciate each other and sometimes tolerate each other in a way that we never have before.
Maybe it’s because we have had so much time to grow accustomed to Levi’s willingness to give his opinion, to Eagle’s fashion experiments, to Darcie’s odd noises, Dylan’s hairstyles and to Mackayla’s non-stop cheerfulness, we can appreciate our classmates’ individuality in a way we never could before.
Next cliché: We’ll look back and say that these years were the best in our lives. Remember the Grade 8 couch war? Sorry to those of you who came from Grouard and Gift Lake, these are Prairie River memories. Some of the teachers had a bit of a battle, which started with stealing a couch from the staff room and placing it in other parts of the building. They would send students to steal the couch from other classrooms. We never knew where the couch would turn up next.
Then there was the alteration of the Grade 9 play to the surprise of everyone except the cast, to include a decapitation of one of the major characters played by Morgan Nesom.
Another situation to be remembered is Lenny’s touching love song duet with Marc at the Christmas air guitar contest.
We have made some lasting memories together. I hope that in 10 years, we will be somewhere and can still start stories with, ‘Oh, my God, there was this guy I graduated with …’
This isn’t the end, it is a new beginning. I don’t think we should think of this as the end of our learning. This is the beginning of our learning about ourselves and where we fit into the world. In many ways, we are emerging from the protection of our parents and our school and beginning a completely new journey on our own.
Some final words of wisdom for that journey: Set targets for yourself. Build relationships. Each day is a gift. Let’s make the world a better place than when we found it.
So this is our night – enjoy it.
This is our life – live it to the fullest.
This is our stage – give it all you’ve got. This is your life, not a dress rehearsal.
For more photos (printed and unprinted), check out the Prom album
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