Glacier High wins Most Memorable Graduation award

Glacier High School has another tassel to add to its graduation cap following the announcement Monday it received the Most Memorable Graduation award and $10,000 from Varsity Brands.

The announcement came during a livestream from Disney World in Florida Monday night where awards were given to students, staff and schools in multiple categories for the Varsity Brands School Spirit Awards contest. Glacier competed against finalist schools from St. Louis, Detroit and Oklahoma.

The award recognized a graduation ceremony that “celebrates the achievements of graduating seniors and inspires success in the rest of the student body. Students will remember this ceremony for the rest of their lives.”

Glacier was recognized for its “grit and gratitude” mantra and student-driven commencement ceremony.

Principal Callie Langohr was attending a school play during the livestream, but was able to watch the recorded version during intermission.

“I must have played it three times because I couldn’t believe we won the thing. Sure enough we were selected as number one,” Langohr said noting that the Glacier was up against schools that had included videos of sophisticated quality in their submissions.

Langohr had initially come across an email for the contest and decided that Glacier was a good candidate. The school entered the competition in February and was named a finalist in March.

Langohr said the graduation ceremony is about students and should reflect that. A student advisory committee meets with the principal to plan the two-hour ceremony “minute by minute,” beginning in March.

“I think one of the things that makes our graduation ceremony unique is that it’s student run. This year we will have 35 seniors on stage in some capacity either performing or speaking or emceeing,” Langohr said.

Another special touch Glacier was noted for is that every graduate wears a white “stole of gratitude,” and a medallion during commencement to symbolize “deep appreciation and gratitude.” Following the ceremony each student is encouraged to honor an adult who has made an impact in his or her life by giving them the stole.

Planning for this year’s graduation ceremony wrapped up with the final senior advisory committee meeting held Tuesday.

“The script has been written,” Langohr said.

Seats will be hard to come by for the 2017 graduation where 264 students are anticipated to receive diplomas beginning at 11 a.m. June 3. In addition to having a memorable commencement ceremony, the high school is celebrating its 10th anniversary since opening in 2007 following a lengthy and emotion-filled process to add a second high school in Kalispell.

“The timing is absolutely perfect because we are just closing out year 10 of Glacier,” Langohr said.

“We have talked about the journey this school has traveled in the last 10 years and this was a way to validate the hard work and effort our students and staff have put in the past 10 years.”

Glacier High School was also recently ranked fourth among the top high schools in the state and in the top 10 percent nationally according to the U.S. News and World Report 2017 Best High Schools.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.