2024 MUCC Grad (Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

By Ben Tompkins

Onto adulthood

MUCC celebrates 2024 graduates

Jun 27, 2024 | 5:00 PM

Thursday, June 27 was a very special day for a lot of Northeast residents, especially those in Grade 12 at Melfort & Unit Comprehensive Collegiate.

Their 2024 graduation began at 10 a.m. in the school’s gymnasium, as they bid farewell to high school and hello to adulthood.

In total, there were 93 graduates, as principal David Painchaud told northeastNOW that they all did a tremendous job developing as fine young people and great learners.

“I didn’t get a chance to know them all, because this was my first year, and part of a principal’s job is to sometimes deal with matters that aren’t always great, but this graduating class was easy in that regard.”

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Painchaud also gave kudos and thanks to the staff who put on the graduation, which he said was excellent.

He knows this community is very close and hopes that every graduate takes a little piece of MUCC with them, no matter where their next journey may be.

“I think that was a common message throughout the day that even though you might leave this place, there’s always going to be a piece of you that will connect you back here.”

Along with announcing all the grads, there were plenty of scholarships handed out, along with speeches from various students.

One of the graduating students was Chad Huxted, who pointed out that while some may not know exactly what is next, the future is still very exciting.

(Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

“I think it varies from person to person, a lot of people are really excited to experience university and to move on to their careers, while for others, it’s the excitement of finding new things, exploring and experiencing new things, travelling, and then seeing their likes and dislikes and where to go from there,” Huxted explained.

“I think overall, our group was quite friendly and kind to each other, everyone generally kind of understood who they were, and it’ll be nice to look back five, ten, fifteen years and say hey, I graduated with you.”

One last part of the program was the tradition of the Wall of Fame inductions.

This year, two former MUCC graduates were inducted, in Layne MacGillivray and Julie Kozun.

MacGillivray, a World Champion Chuckwagon Driver, was unable to attend, as he is currently competing in the Ponoka Stampede.

As for Kozun, a Paralympic volleyball athlete, she was in Melfort to accept her plaque and deliver a speech.

(Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

“I didn’t really think I’d be back in the gym again for grad, so it was really exciting… I was pretty honoured and it’s pretty cool that I’ll be on the wall forever, so just really happy to have the honour. I definitely was in my feels a little bit and kind of teared up a little bit more than I thought,” she said.

“MUCC meant quite a bit to me, I’m still really close with a lot of my friends from high school and a lot of the teachers I know very personally, so it’s a really special place in my heart and hopefully one day my kids can come here and see me on the wall… I was really happy to be here today.”

The Wall of Fame recognizes students from the Melfort High School, Melfort Regional Division III School, Melfort Composite Collegiate Institute, or the Melfort and Unit Comprehensive Collegiate who have shown outstanding achievement in sports, academics, arts, leadership, citizenship, volunteerism or community service.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On X @BenTompkins_8