Not too many people get to go on a school trip across North America – and even fewer get the chance to reminisce about that trip more than half a century later with their friends.
But that’s exactly what happened at St. Francis French Immersion Catholic School on Monday afternoon, when around a dozen students from that 1970 trip reunited after 55 years – including their old teacher, Terry LeBoeuf, who’s now 83.
“I did not imagine we'd ever be here 55 years later,” LaBoeuf told SooToday.
“Every time we meet, it's just a thrill. We look at them as adults, and all I see is kids.”
The trip took that group of Grade 7 and 8 students from Sault Ste. Marie all the way across Canada to Seattle as part of their history and geography education, with numerous stops along the way.
Students stayed in school gymnasiums along the journey, bussed their own tables when eating at restaurants, and fundraised extensively to go on the trip – making memories that have stood the test of time.
“There's never been another school that ever – anywhere in Canada, that we're aware of – that ever did this. Most people, on graduation either went to Niagara Falls, Toronto, or Canada's Wonderland,” said Larry Cote.
Students ran a “Buy a Mile” campaign in the community to help fund their journey, which bought them a lifetime of friendship with one another.
“We each had to raise money, $1,200,” recalled Joanne Mitchell.
“We’re all still close and just picking up from those days and having fun.”
Even though the former students are in their late 60s today, the schoolyard banter came back to them quick on Monday afternoon – with some former students recalling the times errant snowballs got them in trouble, which teachers were good or bad, and how they used to climb up on the school roof to free lost sports balls.
After all these years, LeBoeuf said there’s something incredible about the group of students who came along on the cross-continent trip.
“They were a very special class,” he said. “I learned more from this crew than any class I ever taught.”
“They were very real. They weren't a class that had any pretentiousness . . . so I took an extra special interest in each of them right as far as I could.”