By Kevin J. Sabo For the Bashaw Star
Thanks to an outpouring of community support, the members of the 2021 Bashaw School graduating class are just about done fundraising for the year.
The major fundraising decided on by the grad class fundraising committee was a bottle drive held Jan. 23, with a goal of raising $1,500.
“We ended up exceeding that by quite a large amount,” said 2021 grad class member Georgia Wray.
“The community has really come together to support us. The bottle drive went a lot better than we had anticipated. We’re close to done, if not done, fundraising.”
Thanks to the COVID-induced unpredictability of this year, Wray says that the grad class has opted to just focus on raising funds by collecting bottles this year.
“We’re keeping the account open at the Bashaw Bottle Depot,” said Wray.
“Right now, we’re just sticking with bottles.”
The funds being raised are going toward the 2021 grad festivities, whatever form they may take. Possible expenses for the sixteen-member graduating class include a venue for a banquet, decorations, catering, and invitations if things are allowed to go ahead.
As of now, Wray has no idea what form the festivities will take, thanks to the ever-changing restrictions being set forth by the Government of Alberta. She is not even sure if they will be able to hold a traditional grad in the school.
“We’re going off projections,” said Wray.
“The government has put out an opening plan for what numbers need to look like for grad to happen. Within a week of our grad, when we know the numbers, we’ll sort of know what we’re able to have.”
If the graduating class is unable to hold a traditional grad at the school, an option they are discussing is holding a grad at a rented venue instead.
“If we’re allowed to, we’ll hold grad in the school, and if not, we have chosen a venue to host it if need be,” said Wray.
“We have plans for every sort of stage, whatever we’re allowed to have — we have the budget for every stage of opening up.”
Unfortunately, due to the unpredictability in the province, the grad class will have a short window of time to put together their celebration based on current restrictions, but Wray and her classmates are optimistic that a celebration of some sort will be able to proceed.
The only question that remains is in what form it will take.