Winkler’s Class of 2024 from Garden Valley Collegiate and Northlands Parkway Collegiate is teaming up for the annual joint grad parade this week.
The community is invited to come cheer on the grads as they parade through town in their formalwear on Thursday, June 20 starting at 7 p.m. If it rains, the parade will be held Friday at 7 p.m.
“I have always enjoyed the idea of the grad parade just as a way of celebrating the kids who are graduating,” says GVC grad Brock Becker, who is a member of the school’s aftergrad committee. “It’s a nice chance for them to show off, sort of a last hurrah … for a lot of kids, getting through high school might have been a struggle, a lot of these classes took a toll, and they were able to push through and get it done.”
Having the parade be a joint effort between the two high schools is a neat tradition in unity, Becker observes.
“It definitely creates a sense of camaraderie between the two schools where there’s normally rivalry,” he says. “It could be two separate parades, the way that there’s two separate after grads, but it’s one connected one, the Winkler grad parade—we’re all graduating from the Winkler high schools, we’re all Winkler graduates.”
The parade will get underway at the Meridian Exhibition Centre, head south down Park St., east briefly on South Railway Ave., south down 8th St. to Pembina Ave., west down Pembina all the way to 15th St., and then north to turn on Grandeur Ave. and end things near the exhibition centre.
“There’s going to be a lot of cool cars,” Becker says. “And kids are going to be wearing suits and dresses as well, and those are always spectacular.
“It’s a fun show to be had and a fun thing to watch.”
The 2024 graduation ceremonies happen next week, with GVC’s taking place Tuesday and NPC’s on Wednesday.
