Published Tue, Dec 12, 17.
Written by .
PINE LAKE ACADEMY
11TH GRADUATION, 2017/11/10
And it came to pass that on the tenth day of November 2017, Pine Lake Academy held its annual graduation ceremony cum community fair. There was a huge turnout, a crowd of over 600 guests attended the ceremony this year. A lot of processes were the very usual ones that we do every year in our graduation days. This include the giving of merit awards to various students in the areas they have shown some exemplary performance. The air was full of excitement as always even as the events progressed as was planned. We got some serious downpour of rain which has become God’s tradition with us during our D- day. This time we had to stop all activities twice in order for the rain to subside.
There were also a few notable things during this event of this year. First, I got to learn that a number of women in the community had already developed a habit/tradition of buying new dress purposely for the graduation ceremony at pla. I met one lady from the community heading to kisii and when I asked her what she was going for, that is when I got to learn of this aspect of the goings. I kind of insisted that the story could not be true and so she gave me names of five other ladies who had got new dresses purposely for the day. It was nice to hear that some members of the community have put additional value attachment to the annual even at Pine Lake Academy.
Secondly, there were quite a number of new faces attending the function for the very first time. We had a slot in our program of the day to acknowledge those who were in attendance for the first time ever and that is when we found out. Some of them came forward and asked that they be allowed to transfer their kids to pla as from next year. In addition to this, almost all of our alumni were present because the schools closed earlier than usual due to the elections in our country.
Thirdly, for the first in our graduation ceremony, the recorder music was played thanks to Terry and the team of Teachers. Seth of grade 8 and his little sister Anabritta of grade six performed with the recorder, the song; “Showers of blessings”. You couldn’t believe your eyes as the duet was being performed that the crowds with amazement that you could think that the mouths were wide open so as to help the eyes see better. There was a thunderous applause and the end of this and also it marked the end of all performances for the day.
Lastly, we had a PLA Newsletter and because we were not sure of the possibility of people’s reaction and demand for it, we produced 50 copies and put a price for each copy at $ 1.50. Amazingly, the very first people to come in took all the fifty copies and then the demand was in hundreds and yet were unable to produce more. The production cost for each newsletter was $ 3.50. Now we know what to expect and the number of newsletter to produce.
The guest of honor for the day was the Principal of Mititi high school who in his address promised to transform the Mititi high school into a national school so as to get the lion share of students from Pine Lake Academy. Every Principal in the region want to have Pine Lake kids join their respective high schools.
As the event of the annual graduation ceremony, the day was a huge success. As the Pine Lake Academy’s organized community fair, the day was a success. Thanks to all.
Christopher.