June, 50 years ago, was a momentous month!  Remember?  Writing final exams, receiving grades, handing in textbooks, cleaning out lockers, (even being able to leave school grounds as Grade 12s on a school day!), taking photos, writing in yearbooks, searching for a summer job, planning for next year, attending our graduation ceremony, saying goodbyes, celebrating with family & friends – it was a whirlwind of activities, thoughts and emotions! 

GRAD PHOTO - From the 1975 school yearbook! (Maybe the original photo still hangs in the school?)

 

GRADUATION PROGRAM - Friday, June 27, 8:00 pm

If any of us can remember who received the awards listed, please send an email back to Wes and he will update this post.

 

VALEDICTORY ADDRESS – Below is Wes’ valedictory address, taken from the 1975 yearbook.  It is edited slightly with paragraph headings.  It is mostly as remembered and is based upon the copy he gave to the school.  

Mr. Chairman, Honourable Speaker Mr. Epp, Mr. Hovorka, teachers, parents, and fellow students,

On behalf of the graduating class of 1974, I stand before you on this great and meaningful day to try and say what is on our hearts and to thank each and everyone of you for your prayers in our stead to make this day possible.  First, if it wasn't for our moms and dads we couldn't be graduates and there would be no graduation day. I must admit that I feel unworthy to be giving this address, yet I am extremely proud to be able to represent my fellow graduates. Thank you graduates for choosing me and I only hope I can express our gratitude and our thoughts as they should be expressed.

Elementary School

Tonight, I'd like to take you on a journey that begins back in September 1962 and is just ending now June 1974. Don't worry though, it won't take 12 years to relate.  However, 12 years ago each of us began a new era in our lives. It was our first day at school and to us it was an awesome if not terrifying experience. I remember that my sister brought me into Mrs. Wesner's room and as soon as she left, I started bawling my eyes out. Jeff was telling me that apparently, he had to go to the washroom and Mrs. Wesner wouldn't let him so well you know what happened next. That's a great way to start school off.  I guess our first years at school were spent missing mom and dad at home, adjusting to the teachers’ discipline, and seeing which one of us could run the fastest, bat the furthest, or get the highest marks in our class.  There was always a tremendous amount of competition to be the top guy on the totem pole.  It is this experience at competing with other people that has helped prepare us for the competition of life.

Junior High

The journey continues as we moved up into junior high. This was supposedly our years of adolescence, and although we didn't really notice it, everybody else told us they did. I guess we guys will have to admit, though, that we did begin to notice the gals. And the girls, I'm sure, will have to admit that every time they saw a guy, they got into a little huddle and started giggling. All of us had our little secret romances and not so secret puppy loves or whatever you want to call them. Apparently, some are still going on today.

High School Milestones

During our school days there have been several milestones which we have passed represented by both people and events that have had a great impact on our lives. I'd like to tell you about one of these milestones that has meant so much in my life. Five years ago, when we were in grade 8, we came into school one September day to find a guy by the name of Mr. Gotziaman, who happens to be chairman tonight, as our new Phys. Ed Director. I can say since that first meeting that he has meant more to us than we would have imagined. Mr. Gotziaman became our coach and for five hard but beautiful and rewarding years most of the graduates you see on the platform tonight were privileged to be under his tutelage. It was not because of our talent or ability that we finally made it to the top or almost to the top, but it was his dedication that carried us through.

We have run up and down this gymnasium probably thousands of times not because we especially wanted to or thought we needed to, but because our coach knew it would pay off in the end.  Many times, I can remember him telling us that 90% of high school sports is desire, the other 10% is ability and hard work. Those words were what really kept me going and I'm sure they had a great effect on the rest of the team. This united desire to win brought our teams very close together. I'd like to thank my Raider teammates for what they have meant to me. The only regret is that we just can't keep on playing together. Like one of the girls on this platform tonight said after the boys had lost the provincial basketball final game this past March, “I don't care that we lost. It's just that we can't go back and try over again”. That is a beautiful statement in itself, and so true. We have got to go on in life and do our best the first time because it's not often we get a second chance. This is where desire comes in and pays off. It's not only because of Mr. Gotziaman, but it's because of all our school board and teachers who have been behind us all the way, that each of us students and graduates have learned something about desire and become better people. We have been better equipped to go on in life and become a success. Our individual goals and private dreams are within reach.

Pressing Forward

This journey at Ross L Gray has come to an end and the time for our separating of ways has come. We leave each other with a feeling of hesitancy because we'll miss each other. We have spent many hours laughing and crying together, listening and learning together, things we shall hold and treasure in our hearts till the day we die.

But we can’t live in the past, or even the present, but we must live for the future. Apostle Paul said we should “press forward unto the mark of our high calling.” A new journey is ahead of us, and I hope each one of us will remember those words, “90% is desire.” Life is not a bed of roses as we all know, our troubles may not always be small ones nor our fortunes ten times ten, but if we  are faithful in the little, we will be placed over more. I hope that each of us will not only go out in life to exist, but that we will go out there and enjoy living.  For that’s the way God wanted it when he created each and every one of us in this building today.  I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for dying on the cross for my sins and for rising from the dead for my justification.  And, my pastor, Rev. Hjordis Simenson, who means more to me than words can express. 

Gratitude to All

We graduates here tonight cannot fully express our gratitude toward our parents, our pastors, our teachers, and our school. We are deeply grateful to each one of you. Deeply grateful enough to feel like the man, A.P. Goethe, who once said, “gratitude is the hardest of emotions to express. Until we reach a world where human thought can surpass the boundary of words, thank you will have to do.” Thank you very much.