Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Colfax graduates make their way down Main Street during the post-graduation parade Saturday.
Nolan Burrill busts a move after his name is called at the fairgrounds.
COLFAX – It started with a week's delay for construction and ended with a two-and-a-half month closure, capped by a fairgrounds drive-up graduation for the Colfax High School Class of 2020.
Graduates stood in their gowns in a spaced line Saturday, June 8, against a long fence behind the Home Arts building, and Principal David Gibb called their name.
Each student stepped toward a small stage, Gibb handed them a personal card and letter from the city and rows of cars honked for the turning of the tassel.
Valedictorian Caden Brown went first, his speech limited to a not-yet-seen online video recorded at the school the week before.
"Together we somehow made it through these unpredictable and troubling times," Brown said then. "No, I do not mean COVID-19, I mean the last four years of high school."
After all 41 students received their diploma, on raised speakers, Paul Simon sang "If you'll be my bodyguard, I can be your long lost pal" and the class convened on the stage and tossed their mortarboards.
"At first, we were kind of unsure (about the graduation ceremony), people weren't really looking forward to it," said Gunnar Aune, ASB president. "But looking back, we kind of liked it more than the traditional setting. And really the parade was the cherry on top."
After final pictures and congratulations at the fairgrounds, a Whitman County Sheriff and Colfax Fire Department escort led a stream of cars down hospital hill onto closed Main Street, graduates standing in a pickup bed, sitting on car-door windowsills, waving from sunroofs and, at the end, riding under an American flag and a Colfax Bulldogs flag strung from a fire ladder.
"My class is just super-thankful for what the school staff and community did in these crazy times," Aune said.
Afterwards, the class of 2020 gathered one last time in their gowns at the center of the football field and let off orange balloons. At the front were Tom and Janelle Stirling, whose late son Konnor was a member of the class. He died of cancer during their eighth-grade year.
"We wanted to make graduation special for the kids and I think we made it the best we were allowed to," said Superintendent Jerry Pugh.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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