Melissa Voss | Editor
When imagining the end of their high school experience, the Class of 2020 most likely did not foresee an outdoor graduation enforcing social distancing. Graduation brings about change and new beginnings for the graduates and their families. And despite the change that COVID-19 pandemic has brought, local school districts worked hard to celebrate their seniors’ accomplishments. Tri-Valley and West Central high schools celebrated their seniors with a unique graduation ceremony on Sunday, May 17 after having to postpone their ceremonies from Saturday due to weather concerns.
Working to make their graduations memorable for both the graduates and their families, both school districts got creative with the ceremony. Respecting the social distancing orders of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the South Dakota Department of Health (DOH), Tri-Valley and West Central required graduates to sit six feet apart and asked that the events be closed to the public.
Both schools held their ceremony in their respected parking lots, with graduates seated in the rows in front of a speaker’s podium and family members either sitting in their cars or standing off to the side.
West Central’s commencement address was given by honor graduate and valedictorian Hannah Droge. The West Central class of 2020 salutatorian was Isaiah Tschetter. The graduate roll call was given by the 2020 National Honor Society (NHS) Teacher of the Year, Andrea Johnson.
The American Legion Citizenship Awards were presented to four West Central graduates, two from American Legion Hartford Post #118 and American Legion Humboldt William H. Crippen Post #62. Every year the American Legion for the Humboldt and Hartford posts recognizes one male and one female from each post who over the course of their 4 years of high school have done an outstanding job demonstrating the traits of courage, honor, leadership, patriotism, scholarship and service. Each recipient receives a certificate and a medallion. The Hartford Post #118 awarded Riley Ketcham and Emma Hagel and the Humboldt William H. Crippen Post #62 awarded Charlie Berg and Alexus Kunkel.
Tri-Valley’s commencement address was given by Matthew Bleeker. This year’s valedictorians were Hunter Hanson and Olivia Stieben. The presentation of the class of 2020 was given by Tri-Valley high school principal Brad McDonald.
Both school districts held an honorary parade for the graduates, going through the towns within their given districts to give the community a chance to congratulate and celebrate the graduating class.