Prairie Hope rolls out red carpet

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This article was published 30/06/2021 (1738 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon School Division’s 2021 high school graduation season came to an end on Tuesday, with Prairie Hope High School officials hosting their own ceremony in the city’s downtown core.

This year, just like BSD’s other senior high schools, Prairie Hope staff opted to organize an outdoor ceremony with physical distancing measures put in place to abide by the province’s latest COVID-19 health restrictions.

But since Prairie Hope’s class of 2021 only consisted of 49 graduates, each student really got the time and space to drink in their big moment after being dropped off at The Firehouse event venue — formerly known as the Prairie Firehouse restaurant — one at a time.

Graduate Sierra Barker told the Sun she was really impressed with the way Prairie Hope staff dressed up the front of the building, which featured a red carpet, flower arch and decorative trees.

“It’s such a surreal experience, honestly,” Barker said.

“I thought we were just going to have a diploma sent to us in the mail, but this was actually really nice. They did a good job with the decorations and everything.”

Fellow graduate Gursehj Sangha revealed that this small-scale ceremony was a cathartic moment after such a chaotic academic year, where most K-12 students had to endure the shift from in-person to remote learning due to spiking COVID cases.

On top of that, Sangha admitted that she decided to take a year off to focus on her mental health, which pushed her scheduled graduation back from the summer of 2020 to now.

“I went back to school in March and I just worked my way through school and I worked through all the courses and it actually paid off,” she said. “So it’s actually a little surprising to be here right now because I made it in such a short period of time.”

While Tuesday’s ceremony didn’t give graduates the chance to deliver a formal speech to the public, certain students took some time to give thanks when talking to the Sun in private.

Darryl Ferland, for example, said he wouldn’t have been able to make it this far in his education without the support of his girlfriend Amy, his mother Dianne and other extended family members.

“It’s kind of a big weight being lifted,” said Ferland, who has aspirations of applying for a trades program at Assiniboine Community College.

“It feels good to be done with this part of my life and being able to move on to bigger and better things in the future.”

Meanwhile, Margaret McKay went out of her way to thank the Prairie Hope staff, who have been very accommodating of her unique needs as a new mother.

“They offered us rides, bus passes were a big thing for me and my baby, and they were just very supportive,” she said. “I loved going to school here. It was a really good experience.”

Tuesday’s ceremony also marked a big milestone for Prairie Hope staff as well, since this is only their second official grad celebration as an independent entity.

After opening its doors in September 2007, this institution was known as Neelin High School Off Campus or BSD Off Campus, and was designed to provide a unique school setting for students who are at risk of discontinuing their education for a variety of reasons.

However, the alternative school received a new name and organizational structure in 2019, and put together its first graduation ceremony under that umbrella the following year.

But now that they’ve completed an entire academic year as “Prairie Hope,” acting principal Katherine MacFarlane told the Sun that Tuesday’s grad ceremony will help solidify this emerging identity heading well into the future.

“This time last year they had just finished selecting the logo,” MacFarlane said outside The Firehouse.

“So having your own identity, your own logo and your own name, and then being able to celebrate right out in the open where people can see us, I think that’s very special.”

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

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