(Left to right) Gerry McDonald, Shirley Galler, Ernie Champagne, Mary Lou Adams, Irene Toews and Reg Sproule

The old Giroux School was open from 1915 to 1966, and on Saturday a reunion was held for all of the remaining former students.

Reunion Committee Member Ernie Champagne says they had a fantastic turnout.

"Everyone who ever attended who was still alive was invited," Champagne explains.  "I think we have about 80 former students here.  That's probably well into the majority of people who attended the school.  There's probably very few that are still alive today that didn't show up.  The school closed in 1966 due to consolidation, so you'd have to be 55 years old to be attending this school."

The large amount of attendees lead to a very wide age range at the reunion.

"There are people here, there's Walter Reimer who's 94 years old," Champagne notes.  "Les Champagne, my dad is 94 years old and Leo Rougeaux, three guys who are 94 years old who went to school here.  Along with everybody else, there is a big spectrum of people that are here that at one time attended Giroux School."

Prior to the reunion a number of the former students went to the old school site to pay tribute to the school.  When the school was torn down, only the front steps were left behind.

"We incorporated the steps into a cairn," Champagne describes.  "We encased it in concrete, left it sticking out of the concrete, had a beautiful rock we put on top and put a plaque on there.  It's dedicated to the previous students, school board and the teachers of the school."

He adds it was really neat to see everyone interact at the reunion as there were many people who hadn't seen each other in 30 or 40 years.