Notre Dame Collegiate has a unique tradition of engraving each graduate's name on a cup at the end of the school year.

Principal Jodi deKlerk says it's their way of ensuring that every grad is still a part of the school even when their time there is over.

It also serves as encouragement for those still in classes that one day it will be their turn to have their name on the cup.

"It's just such a special thing for our school. Historically, our last Mass of the year is in our school and the grads will carry the Grad Cup up to the front of the gym and all the students see it being carried up by the graduating class. They hold it above their heads, and they pass it from person to person just like they do in the Stanley Cup. But of course, we couldn't do that this year."

With COVID restrictions, things weren't quite the same, but each student's name was engraved on that cup before this year's graduation ceremony.

The cup was built by Dal Langenberger in association with the Knights of Columbus at the St. Francis de Sales parish in High River.

It is designed to look like the Stanley Cup. Hand-crafted out of wood, each year the cup more closely resembles the famous cup from the NHL as a silver plaque is installed with that year's graduates' names engraved on it by Olson Silver Company.

The cup is on display at the school just as you walk in the front door. People can touch the cup and turn it around to find their names.

"The cup itself just is for me a reflection of every individual student having an importance and being important to us as a school," says deKlerk.

Principal deKlerk has been to every NDC grad and has so many memories attached to the names on the cup.

"The importance of it is that it gives a name to every single person, and every single person is important that graduates from our school."

 

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