Flash bulbs go off as 184 smiling faces peer out from under royal blue caps. Their image captured to hang with the grad classes before them in the halls of Vernon Secondary School.
The man behind the camera taking the traditional photo on the steps of the courthouse for 36 years, former VSS teacher Wayne Emde, thinks back on all the years, remembering that it has never rained or been cancelled.
The students seem to value the iconic event and the mood at the courthouse buzzes with excitement.
“I remember looking at the pictures in the school and my dad having a big afro and just trying to figure out which one he was and he’s like ‘I’m the one with the big hair’, said Valentina Correale
“It’s awesome. I remember looking at my mom’s picture except they didn’t have the gowns on,” said Ashley Willmott.
The class of 2013 is also starting a new tradition as the first class to graduate in the new school.
“I’m glad that we get to be that grad class because it is going to be there for so long and it’s starting a new tradition with a new picture outside of the school,” said Amanda Vallance
When Richard Meaney was asked if he felt disappointed that he only got half a year in the new school, he said he didn’t but he just wished he could have kept his locker from the old school.
