Plans being put in place for Duclos centennial celebration

For the best part of a century, Duclos School has been synonymous with the Town of Bonnyville and now, with its 100th birthday on the horizon, local residents are putting plans in place for a "special celebration" to commemorate the long-standing history of the public institution.

Byron Johnson, a local resident who spent his formative years as a student at the school in the 1970's and 80's, has teamed up with current principal Richard Cameron to organize a celebratory ceremony in 2016 to mark the school's centennial year.

"Basically what we're looking to do at the moment is collect artifacts, gather pictures and really just speak to people and hear their stories about attending the school so that we can try and put a program together for a special centennial celebration in 2016," Johnson said when speaking to the Nouvelle last week. "It's really important that we keep track of our history and not only recognize it, but celebrate it too."

He added, "Duclos School has been a major, major part of this community practically since it was founded, and has been a major influence on thousands of peoples' lives. I think it's only fitting that we put together a big celebration commemorating that fact."

The school is in its 'third generation' in town. Shortly after moving to Bonnyville in 1916, Reverend J.E. Duclos set up evening classes for young people in the old hospital building, but it wasn't until 1928 that students had an actual school site, with a school part of a three-pronged 'Duclos Mission' along with a church and hospital on 66 Street.

That site was used until 1954 when Duclos moved to its current location, and in 1993 the third and final school was completed when the province constructed a brand new school beside the old one. Today, the school still uses a portion of the initial building.

Having spent time as a high school and more recently a middle school, Cameron said it was important to remember the "incredible journey" of the school over the past 100 years.

"It is a huge milestone for any educational institution to celebrate its 100th anniversary and especially so for us here at Duclos," Cameron said. "As Byron said earlier, this school has literally impacted thousands of lives - a huge, huge number of students, staff and families. This school is a long and important part of Bonnyville's history."

Having spent 11 years at Duclos as a student and with his daughter enrolled in the current facility, Johnson said this celebration held a special place in his heart.

"My memories of going here from '77 to '88, which was kindergarten to Grade 9, were that this was a very close knit place, the students all interacted well, the teachers cared and it was just a great place to go to school," Johnson said. "I'm really hoping this centennial will bring a lot of people back and just remember and commemorate how big a part of our lives this place was."

With the celebration still two years away, Johnson said he had a long time to try and make his vision for the event a reality.

"In a perfect world, we're going to have a get together at the Centennial Centre, have a nice dinner and nice commemorative program including speeches and stories from key people that were a big part of Duclos over the years," Johnson said. "I'm really hoping to have somebody from each era, dating as far back as possible, come in and share their stories. I think that would be a real nice touch."

He added, "Then of course we'll have some entertainment from past alumni. Maybe we'll be able to bring Juno award winner Clayton Bellamy back to his roots again."

Johnson said he was hoping to leave some sort of legacy behind for the students following the centennial celebration, stating he was hoping to be able to gather enough money to purchase playground items or something else that students would be able to use at the school.

Should you have any information, stories or artifacts to share about your time at Duclos, you can search Duclos School Centennial Celebrations on Facebook, or email Johnson at [email protected]