Il etait tentant d’ecrire … ah forget it. As tempting as it is to write this in French, the article will stick to English.
Less than 100 people live in Bellegarde, a French community in southeast Saskatchewan. It’s a small community, but it is home to something that impacts people who live quite a distance away, L’École de Bellegarde. It is the only French-speaking school within several hundred kilometres.
It’s a small school, as this year’s graduating class of five students illustrates. But its uniqueness in providing an education solely in French attracts students from quite a distance. This year’s graduates – Avery Cosgrove, Jacob Dumaine, Ethan Fouillard, Jaydon Hamel and Damien Jones – came from places as close as Storthoaks and as far away as Maryfield, Sinclair and Virden, Man.
Some began school with some understanding of French; others started from scratch. Upon graduation, they had one thing in common. All were fully bilingual.
Most of the graduation ceremony was conducted in French, naturellement, but enough English was spoken so that those attending who knew little or no French were able to get the gist of what was going on.
About 175 family and friends came to celebrate the graduates’ accomplishments. Along with the usual congratulatory speeches, there were a number of lighthearted moments. Among those were the 10-year dreams of each graduate, ranging from living in a mountain cabin while running a ski resort – made possible by proceeds of a lucrative singing career – to living in Storthoaks and operating the world’s largest online Crocs enterprise.
Avery Cosgrove earned the honour of being class valedictorian and used her time in the spotlight to reflect on memories of her male classmates. Her speech was interrupted often by laughter from the audience who seemed to enjoy watching the squirming of the four who remained on stage.
The hour-long ceremony concluded shortly after the valedictory speech but many chose to hang around to offer their encouragement to the five graduates.
Et cela, mes amis, c’e st tout ce qu’elle a écrit. (And that, my friends, is all she wrote.)
