Skip to content

Wetaskiwin Composite High School celebrates 60th anniversary

Hundreds flock to Wetaskiwin for mass high school reunion
web1_170621-WPF-WCHSReunionPromo_4

The Wetaskiwin Composite High School is turning 60, and this summer Wetaskiwin will be home to an influx of former students returning for the 1960 to 1972 high school reunion.

The reunion will take place August 18 and 19, including celebrations at several locations around the city, as well as the high school.

“It’s been over 30 years since we had a reunion,” said Sandy Wright, chairperson of the Wetaskiwin Composite High School 60’s Reunion, in an interview with the Pipestone Flyer.

Other classes have never held a reunion since graduating.

Wright says the class of 1967 will be celebrating its 50th reunion and the class of 1960 — her class — was in Grade 10 the year the school opened.

“It’s pretty special we can do that,” said Wright, referring to holding the mass reunion the year of the school’s 60th anniversary.

The reunion will kick off with a registration reception on August 18 at 7 p.m. at the Wetaskiwin Drill Hall.

June 19 will commence with a coffee klatch and registration in the morning from 9 a.m. until noon at the Drill Hall. Wetaskiwin Composite High School tours will be held, and a drop-in reception at the Wetaskiwin Museum with a school will take place during the afternoon.

There will be a banquet and dance at the Drill Hall. The event starts at 5:30 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m. and the dance at 9:30 p.m. Class pictures will be taken during the evening.

While current renovations at the school may not be completed in time for the reunion, Wright says there will be some areas of the school former students can check out.

“I think the biggest thing is just renewing friendships. Some people haven’t seen each other in 60 years,” said Wright.

Registration deadline to attend the reunion is July 1, and nine days before the deadline 500 registrants had signed up. Registrants include members of 13 classes, their guests, as well as some teachers from that era.

“We’re expecting over 500 now. Every day we get more registrations,” said Wright.

Planning for the reunion began almost two year prior in October 2015.

Wetaskiwin has seen many changes and growth since the students of the reunion attended high school, and Wright says many who return will be able to see where they lived and socialized during that time of their lives.

“Wetaskiwin should be abuzz with visitors checking out their former stomping grounds where driving up and down Main Street, movies at the drive-in theatre, sock hops and jiving to the rock &roll sounds of the 60’s….the Beatles, Elvis etc., after school stops at the Stanley Cafe and Buds Cafe for pop and fries, watching Ed Sullivan, Father Knows Best and I Love Lucy on TV and dealing with the fears of the Cold War were their activities as teenagers,” states a press release from the Wetaskiwin Composite High School 60’s Reunion.

Wright says some of the high school students in Wetaskiwin for a portion of those years were bused from Millet and Pigeon Lake.

“Often people from Pigeon Lake roomed in Wetaskiwin during their Grade 12 year. They didn’t have any way of getting from Pigeon Lake to Wetaskiwin,” said Wright.

Those who have not registered for the reunion can do so online at http://www.wchssixtiesreunion.com, or by phoning Bill at 780-361-7033 or Sandy at 780-361-5448.