Like most high schools across north America, celebrations for those graduating high school will look a little different in Jasper, Alta. during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Normally Jasper High School hosts a more traditional ceremony the whole town turns out for.
“It’s always been a real community event. You know, held at the high school auditorium and the community shows up, everybody shows up. They’re aware when it’s grad time here,” Mayor Richard Ireland said while appearing on The Ryan Jespersen Show.
Instead, this year, an anonymous donor has come forward and paid for banners to be made with each of the 34 graduates’ — from three high schools in the mountain town — picture on it.
“That just shows the community spirit here,” Ireland said. “The idea here is to celebrate the grads. Nobody else needs to be celebrated at this time.
“We really respect this individual for doing this, but it’s absolutely true. This is an opportunity to celebrate our grads and give them something that they were going to be otherwise lacking, which is a real celebration.”
Those banners have been hung on the lamp posts along Connaught Drive — the town’s main street.
“They’ll be able to see their faces up on the main street and then the rest of the community can also recognize them in that way,” Leslie Currie said.
Currie has been organizing the grad ceremonies for Jasper High School for five years. As it became more clear they were going to need to cancel this year’s ceremony, she knew they had to honour the graduating class in a different way.
“Grad is the first big ceremony in our lives,” she said. “And once you’ve been through it and have gone through a university graduation and weddings and other ceremonial moments, you understand that it really grad is the first of those big moments, that passage of time.”
For the 28 of those graduates who attend Jasper High School, Currie and her team will also be honouring them with lawn signs with their photo and a congratulatory message on it, as well as individual grad ceremonies at the high school during the last week of the school year.
“So they’ll come just with their immediate family to the outside of the school where we’ll have a small stage set up.
“We’ll introduce them just like we always do with an individual anecdote and present them in a socially distancing manner with their diploma.“
Each year the grads fundraise to hold a ceremony at Jasper Park Lodge. This year, that money is going back to the grads in the form of a gift certificate to a local restaurant so they can have a meal with their family.
“This is 12 years that these kids have worked towards,” Currie said. “And more than that, it’s what their parents have worked towards. It’s what the community has worked towards and the school’s staff, everyone is connected to a high school graduation in some way. And so it’s so important that we put honor and value in and recognize that accomplishment.”
According to Currie, the banners were also supported by Tourism Jasper, who gave up some pole space. ATCO donated crew time to install the banners.
“We didn’t think twice when asked to help hang these banners in support of the graduates,” Bill Friesen with ATCO said. “These students had hoped to celebrate this year like any other, but due to these challenging times, their plans had to change. We just wanted to do what we could to wish them all the best.”