Georgina “Gina” Kerr was sure they made a mistake when she was told she would be honoured at the Vernon Secondary School graduation ceremony last Saturday.
Though she was a graduate herself in 1972, she had not had much contact with the high school since.
Kerr spent 27 of her 30-year career teaching Kindergarten — she taught 20 kindergarten classes in Lumby before moving to Vernon. She only taught at Silver Star Elementary School for one year (2005-2006). She then taught at BX Elementary for six months before moving to Ellison Elementary. She retired from Ellison in 2011 and moved to Creston. She travelled to Vernon for Saturday’s ceremony.
“I was gobsmacked because they remembered me and I was only at Silver Star [a feeder school for VSS] that one year,” said Kerr. “I’m just absolutely thrilled and honoured to be apart of the ceremony.”
It is a tradition at VSS to honour one teacher from each grade — kindergarten through grade 12 — who had a positive impact on the graduating class. Kerr was the selected kindergarten teacher this year and was the first of 13 teachers who lit a candle at the ceremony last Saturday.
“I used to tell the kids that they all had a sparkle,” said Kerr.
After seeing her 2005 kindergarten class graduate high school, she said she hopes they continue to sparkle.
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