INNISFAIL – On June 20 at Innisfail High School 52 students accepted graduation diplomas, a 2025 milestone achieved and the start of new ones.
The following day more than 50 former students gathered at the Innisfail Golf Club for their own celebration.
It was 50 years ago when the Class of 1975 at the school (IHS) achieved their milestone; graduating and moving on to the next chapter of their lives.
Earl Dreeshen, now a retired and respected member of parliament, was one of their teachers.
He was an enthusiastic guest at the IHS Grad Reunion for the Class of 1975.
“It was my first year of teaching. I certainly enjoyed these folks, and of course I knew them because we were from the community,” said Dreeshen, who was then just 21 when he started teaching.
“There's many of them I see around town quite a bit, but I also know there's many who have simply been able to come here to be part of this evening. I'm happy to have a chance to reminisce.”
The weekend reunion on June 21 included meeting in the golf club’s decorated event room to catch up, gather for a group photo and then have a grand dinner, followed by a “retrospect” presented by Don Oszli.
A round of golf was planned but cancelled due to poor weather.
Class of 75 graduate Colin Loughlin, who has resided in Innisfail since 1992 after living in Calgary for nearly 20 years, was thrilled that 55 out of the 97 graduates were attending the reunion, with some coming as far away as Ontario and Manitoba.
“We've had a tremendous turnout here today, just absolutely tremendous,” said Loughlin, noting the fond memories he had with the award-winning IHS Band, which included Jean Barclay, the current mayor of Innisfail and a member of the Class of 1975.
“At the time bands were very popular,” said Loughlin. “There was strong community support. We were actually provincial champions for a number of years.
“We were amongst the best. We beat out the Calgary and Edmonton bands, a very powerful band program here.”
Loughlin was one of the organizers for the reunion, but he gave much of the organizing credit to Kathy Fisher, a Class of 1975 graduate and reunion committee chairperson.
“She has been organizing these for 50 years. She's being the kingpin of this,” he said.
But Fisher was modest about her role.
“The crew does all the work. I make lists. I check things off, and then the people that are boots on the ground do all the work,” said Fisher. “It's the other people that came up with the concept for the decorating and did it this morning.
“Colin is our numbers and tech guy, so I maintained a spreadsheet, and then he made it better.”
She said the last IHS reunion was held 10 years ago for the 40th and it was agreed to have it every five years.
But the next planned one for 2020 was cancelled due to COVID.
However, there will be one for the 55th anniversary but only if today’s surviving graduates call for it.
“We'll take a poll tonight and see if people would really want to. I'm willing to help spearhead it again,” she said, noting there is a special “closeness” among members of the Class of 1975. “I think it’s an exceptionally close high school class, and our groups, the jocks, theatre nerds and artists and the ones in the band all had something in common because we grew up in this small town and never really lost contact with some of our people.
“We weren't all best friends forever but some of us have stayed in touch for the last 50 years and just don't want to let that go.”
