On Friday, teams of teachers, staff and parent council members from 50 schools within the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board (SMCDSB) fanned out across their communities, to make a special delivery to each and every graduating Grade 8 and Grade 12 student.
The board has postponed graduation ceremonies due to COVID-19 and the need for physical distancing, but staff wanted to make a gesture, to show graduating students that their efforts and successes have not gone unnoticed.
Staff at the SMCDSB produced keepsake lawn signs for each of the nearly 3,500 graduating students within the board – and on Friday, the signs were delivered, along with a letter of congratulations and encouragement and a prayer.
There were 14 teams making the deliveries to the 2020 graduates at St. Peter’s Catholic Secondary School – including one team comprised of St. Pete’s Principal Brad Shoreman and school community council member Leslie Pollak.
Shoreman and Pollak made every effort to turn the delivery into a celebratory parade, with flags flying, horns honking, and Shoreman riding his Harley-Davidson, just to “make a little noise.”
About 20 percent of the student body at St. Pete’s are from Innisfil – where Shoreman was the principal at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School, before moving to St. Pete’s.
Shoreman and Pollak delivered the signs to a total of 24 Innisfil grads, including Anthony Ventimiglia of Alcona.
“I was his principal at St. Francis elementary school, and I’m his principal now,” said Shoreman, explaining that he and Pollak had tried to “grab as many St. Francis kids as we could,” for their list of deliveries.
“We come back to our community – it’s like we’re closing the loop,” said Pollak.
Ventimiglia accepted the sign and congratulations, but admitted that his future plans are still up in the air.
“I haven’t applied anywhere yet,” he said. “Maybe take a year off,” to look into options including a possible co-op opportunity.
Then it was off to the next delivery - graduate Ryan Mayville, also a former St. Francis of Assisi elementary school student.
Despite the disruptions of COVID-19, Mayville had firm plans for the fall. “I’m going to Nipissing University, to study concurrent education with a major in history,” he said, on a path to becoming a history teacher.
“I liked history a lot when I was taking it in Grade 8, and again in grades 10 and 11,” he explained, “and I like kids.”
Graduating in a time of COVID-19 hasn’t been easy.
“It’s different for sure,” said Mayville – especially the distance learning piece of the puzzle. “Motivation is tough, but the teachers are still doing as much as they can, with what they have.”
Then exchanging wishes to “Have a great summer!”, Pollak and Shoreman were off to the next address.
There had been hopes that Friday’s deliveries would include gowns and caps for the grads, but the order wasn’t delivered in time for students to pose in full regalia with their lawn signs.
It may have to wait until next week, said Shoreman. “We still want them to have their caps and gowns, while it’s still ‘fresh’.”
And there are still plans to hold formal graduation ceremonies in the fall, if pandemic restrictions are eased. “We just wait and see,” he said. “And hope. We need hope the most.”
A graduation ceremony provides a sense of completion, Pollak noted. “I think the closure part is so important, not only for the students, but their parents.”
“Obviously, no-one was expecting their final year of elementary school or high school to end like this,” said SMCDSB Director of Education, Brian Beal. “There were no goodbyes to favourite friends and teachers, no proms, no cap and gown moments with family and friends.”
The board has tentatively scheduled the delayed commencements for October of this year – if pandemic restrictions are lifted by then.
In the meantime, the lawn signs and letters provide some immediate recognition that it is “still important to celebrate the culmination of years of hard work and the accomplishments of these graduates,” Beal said.
“This gesture shows them we are thinking about them and they are special.”
