Eleanor's Commencement

Such an emotional night! All those young men and women up on the stage and many of them I remember from my days as a volunteer at kindergarten, showing them how to use scissors and helping them to read.

Eleanor had three close friends and all of them got awards which made me very happy. Eleanor was awarded the Frank Panabaker Art Award ($500) and graduated 18th in her year with a grade average of 93.25% which is excellent.

The school is such a nice one. I do wish Lauren could go to it but it's outside our catchment area; Eleanor went because she was a French immersion student and our closest high school didn't offer that course. Galt Collegiate is older than Canada; this was its 161st graduation ceremony. They inducted two former students into their Stairway of Excellence, one of whom died some time ago, a well-known speed skater and the other Marcus Riley who was present and gave a great speech. He's won seven Emmies and works for NBC in Chicago.
https://twitter.com/NBCmarcus

Firrhaana Sayanvala won many academic awards last night but also one awarded by the Governor General of Canada; the Philanthropist Award for the top teen philanthropist for community spirit and volunteerism.
http://metronews.ca/news/kitchener/545042/cambridge-teen-wins-philanthropy-award/

I was very pleased to see that the vast majority of awards were won by young women :-)