A crisis like COVID can bring out the best in people’s compassion and creativity.
Take the story of this year’s Central Algoma Secondary School (CASS) graduation which generated interest at home and around the world.
A conversation with his daughter about the importance of the traditional walk on stage to receive a diploma inspired CASS phys-ed teacher Ray Gowlett to think outside the box.
Since the kids could not make it to the stage because of COVID restrictions, Gowlett brought the stage to them.
With the enthusiastic support of the CASS graduation committee and some local businesses, Gowlett built a small stage, hooked it to a trailer and towed it by pickup truck to the homes of all 72 graduating students. The two-day project covered an area from Echo Bay to Thessalon for a total of 400.7 km.
“It was way better than I could have ever imagined,” said Gowlett.
“The students were so excited,” he said. “It was one of the coolest things that has happened to them in over a year.”
At one point it looked like there would be no delivery of diplomas, but the COVID restrictions eased enough to allow for small family gatherings and for the mobile stage project to get rolling.
While the local reaction was heartwarming, the reach this story had worldwide was totally unexpected.
There wasn’t much time to get ready so a video was created to inform the grads about what was happening. It got shared about 200 times locally.
On the Saturday morning, when deliveries began, former CASS teacher Alicia Annett came to help. She made a TikTok video which she posted Sunday. It went viral with 1.5 million views.
“That’s just from the TikTok platform. It’s more than that because it’s been shared on other platforms,” said Gowlett. “It’s been a whirlwind,” said Gowlett.
Gowlett said the story struck a chord among parents and students coping with COVID.
He said there was a desire to hear good stories after a year and a half of what we went through.
COVID made life stressful for teachers like Gowlett. He said the toughest aspect was trying to do the right thing for the kids and not knowing exactly what that was.
“Some students struggled with online learning. Out here there were technological issues with internet access,” he said.
As a phys-ed teacher, Gowlett had to cope with changing rules. He described it as constant nervousness.
Staying in shape and participating in physical activity during the pandemic is possible, but challenging because much of the value of physical activity is social.
“I realized I never really enjoyed lifting weights as much as I enjoyed lifting weights with other people. I don’t enjoy cycling as much as I enjoy cycling with people,” he said.
The success of CASS’s mobile graduation stage got Gowlett thinking of ideas for next year.
He said the small family gatherings allowed graduates to personally shine through in a way that you don’t often see in a bigger public graduation. There’s more time to take pictures and savour the moment.
When normal graduation ceremonies return, Gowlett thinks it may be a good idea to set up a number of smaller stages with different backdrops throughout the school. Families could take pictures at the various smaller stages.
Gowlett emphasizes that what happened at the CASS graduation this year was a true team effort.
The graduation committee embraced the idea and so did various businesses he called on for support.
They include:
- Jordan from Northshore Sports for the trailer;
- Kevin and Meagan from Khaos Graphix for the grad logo;
- Tonya and Jason from 17E Trading Post for providing the gas;
- Ed from Karhi Contracting for providing gas as well;
- McBride Stables for building materials.