Miles Mac grads attend backyard formal

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This article was published 13/07/2020 (2128 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of her graduation celebration, Tessa McLeod held her own.

McLeod, who graduated from Miles Macdonell Collegiate in June, held a graduation dinner on July 7, complete with a full meal and decorations. Graduates came in the formal wear they planned on wearing to the school dinner.

Graduation season begins to pick up in the spring and McLeod said assumed she was in for a typical experience.

“At the beginning I wasn’t that concerned that grad wasn’t going to happen,” she admitted. “As time went on and we weren’t at school I started to worry that I wouldn’t get a grad.

“At first I was upset because this was celebrating going to school for 13 years, but as time went on I was OK with not having it.”

As June approached and graduation plans were curtailed, McLeod’s mother Tara encouraged her to have something to mark the occasion. The plans began to take shape when she went for Father’s Day breakfast with her boyfriend Reid Sierhuis and his family.

“They suggested I should do something in their backyard,” McLeod said.

That was a good suggestion. The Sierhuis family has a spacious backyard which McLeod sectioned off into a reception area with lawns signs, a dining section under a canopy, and another section for additional pictures. An outdoor fireplace was ready for later in the evening.

McLeod said she wanted to create an experience that was as close to what the grads would have experienced at their annual celebration. The meal was served in several courses by moms Tara McLeod and Abby Sierhuis, and most guests and their dates wore their grad dresses and suits. Music played in the background.

After 13 years of school, it was important to mark the occasion after so many rituals associated with the Grade 12 year were cancelled, McLeod said. The annual fashion parade of visiting a shop, picking a dress and wearing it to a formal evening, was among the casualties, as were school trips, a breakfast and ‘skip day’.

McLeod plans on studying criminology with an eye to becoming a lawyer down the road. After seeing the setup for the dinner, her mother said Tessa has a decent fallback plan.

“She’d make a great interior decorator or event planner,” Tara McLeod said. “I’m really proud of her for putting this together.”