Students graduating from Alberni District Secondary School (ADSS) have their traditions, and a grad parade is a long-standing one.
In the 1950s, as evidenced by the accompanying photo from May 1958, Port Alberni’s high school graduates decorated vehicles to parade about town. People would come out to the sidewalks to watch the brightly decorated vehicles drive by.
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Nowadays the “parade” is still made up of vehicles, and up until the novel coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19 restrictions changed things up for 2020 and 2021, grads and their rides would still gather at the site of the former high school at Burde Street and 12th Avenue to ride to wherever prom events were happening—usually the AV Multiplex or Alberni Athletic Hall on Roger Street.
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This year graduates paraded in shifts with a different route taking them out to McLean Mill, where socially distanced activities and photo opportunities were held—a sign of the COVID times.
To learn more about the history of the Alberni Valley, check out the Alberni Valley Museum’s digital archives at https://portalberni.pastperfectonline.com.