St. Mary’s Grade 9 class reunites after 50 years

Although Deibert had never used social media before, he figured it was the best way to find his classmates and it proved to be quite helpful.

“The response we got from everyone is ‘it will sure be interesting, and we’re really looking forward to this’, and that was a positive for me because when I first tried to get all of this going I wasn’t on any social media, Facebook or anything. So I signed up to all them and tried to figure them all out,” said Deibert.

While planning the event, he tried to keep the element of surprise intact.

“I never mentioned names because I wanted them to be surprised though, but I told them we did get two teachers and I mentioned them because I figured, they’ll for sure want to come,” he said.

The two teachers who made it to the reunion were Daryl Weeres and Evan Krawchuk.

Weeres, who travelled a few hours to attend the event, was the principal of St. Mary’s in 1973.

“He lives in Red Deer and he booked a hotel room. He’s coming. And Mr. Krawchuck still teaches, he’s still on their sub list. And they’re kind of the driving attraction too, because everyone is asking who’s going to be there,” said Deibert.

Sadly, not everyone could make it. Harris said some of their teachers and classmates had passed away, and others weren’t able to travel.

One of Deibert’s and Harris’ favourite teachers, Mr. Feist, is unfortunately among those who have passed away, but they have fond memories of him as their Grade 9 homeroom teacher.

“He was very unique for both Sid and I because, first of all, you rarely got a man teacher. And then second of all, he did a whole bunch of other things. He did farming, he did construction, he had this history of all these professions,” said Harris.

“So he taught us that you don’t have to be one thing. You can try this out, try that out, go take this training, do that. And we’re thinking really? I thought you had to pick one. So it was really cool.”

When asked how the 50-year reunion went, Deibert said he was very pleased with the turnout, and he ‘couldn’t ask for a better time’.

“Everyone is asking when the next one is,” he said.