Virtual proms, main street banners: How Sask. Grade 12 students are celebrating graduation

A Saskatoon graduate is one of the organizers behind a national online prom so Grade 12 students across Canada can still celebrate during a pandemic.

Meanwhile, a small Saskatchewan town has put up banners to celebrate their graduates down Main Street. 

With graduation ceremonies cancelled throughout the province due to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, they're just a couple of ways people are trying to make grad special for the class of 2020.

That's what the Student Life Network wants to do with a nationwide hour-long virtual prom on May 22.

Cadderly Kingsbury, a Grade 12 student at Saskatoon's  Evan Hardy Collegiate, is helping organize it.

She says it was tough on students when schools were shuttered in March.

"It was a lot of fear, a lot of anger that was going through my head, because for me, I had waited all my life for this moment and it was being taken away from me," Kingsbury said.

"Me and all my friends were really upset that we weren't able to celebrate our accomplishments the traditional way."

By the time schools were closed down, she had already ordered her grad dress. Kingsbury said she was able to do photographs with her cap and gown earlier in the year. 

Because she couldn't celebrate the traditional way, Kingsbury decided to apply to be a student planner for the virtual prom. She was accepted soon after applying. 

"We're going to be live streaming it on YouTube at 8:00 p.m. and you could watch it by yourself — I know that me and some other people are going to be doing a Zoom call, so we're all going to get to watch together," she said. 

Kingsbury said some celebrities are being asked to take part — she has reached out to Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds and knows others have reached out to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — but none have confirmed.

"We're just trying to get some big recognizable people to give us this encouragement and really make this prom memorable," said Kingsbury.

"Grad is usually the closure of your high school career and that's it, and [you] move onto your life," she said.

"Hopefully with this we can get some closure, some celebration, some happiness in this normally bleak time." 

Those who want to attend can RSVP at the virtual prom's website, or tune in live for free. 

Gravelbourg honours grads on main street

The town of Gravelbourg, about 150 kilometres southwest of Regina, isn't turning to the internet to honour its grads.

Instead, the town has made a public display on its main street.

Casandra Rushinko is the manager of sport, culture and recreation for the town of about 1,100. 

She said Gravelbourg School wanted to do something for its grads, so organizers printed banners featuring the graduates and had them hung up all down First Avenue to show support. 

"We've had a huge social media response.… Everybody has been just so happy to see an opportunity to celebrate our graduates," Rushinko said.

"I really felt that our community was coming closer and closer together."

She said the town is hoping to leave the banners up until what would have been the end of the school year. 

"Normally, we'd be able to have a great big grad celebration for them and they're missing out on that this year," she said.

"They get to have a moment where they get to hold their head high."