Blessed Sacrament School celebrates eighth-grade graduates with commencement video

Friday, Jun. 05, 2020

SANDY — Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools in Utah were not able to hold graduation celebrations for their students. But that was not the case at Blessed Sacrament Catholic School, where the staff’s creativity, hard work and teamwork led to them honoring their 8th-grade graduating class via social media.

The school has always put together a video montage for its graduates, which was shown in the school’s gymnasium after the commencement Mass in the church. 

“This  year when we were talking about what to do due to all the circumstances going on, we decided to do the whole thing virtually,” said Bryan Penn, principal.

The result was a graduation video that allowed all the graduating class members to have the procession, virtually attend Mass, hear messages from Penn and the pastor, Fr. Samuel Dinsdale, receive awards and overall “be all together celebrating, despite not being physically together,” Penn said. 

The virtual graduation was made possible by putting together the talents and treasures of the Blessed Sacrament community.

Mike Vermillion, the school’s music teacher, put into action some of his recently acquired video editing abilities.

“This being my first year with Blessed Sacrament, I was frustrated there wasn’t a good video of the previous musicals,” Vermillion said. “In November, I purchased Final Cut Pro X (video editing software) and tried to learn how to edit some video, in hopes that I could produce a good video of our musical, ‘Annie Jr.’ ... This paid off big time.”

When it became obvious that the school was not going to be able to have its traditional graduation, making a video was an obvious option. 

To keep everyone socially distanced, Vermillion and Stef VanUitert, the school secretary, first recorded a prayer service with Fr. Dinsdale, Penn and Marcy Mullholand, the vice principal, Vermillion said.

A few days later, VanUitert scheduled the graduates to come in one at a time.

 “We recorded them processing down the aisle, receiving any awards, and receiving the diplomas from Mr. Penn,” Vermilion said. “Once the recording was done, I used the magic of modern technology, and cut everything together to make it appear like a normal graduation.”

The final video was posted on YouTube at the same time graduation would have taken place.

“We personally invited everyone to watch it,” he said.

Being able to see the 8th graders one last time meant the world to him, he said. “I am so proud of what they accomplished … and so honored to be one of the few to see them graduate in person and not just through the video.” 

The graduates will be able to have the video to keep and look back on, and “I hope they treasure it,” Vermilion said. “Helping make graduation special and memorable was the least I could do to show them how much they mean to me.”

Penn shared the same feeling.

“As I was watching [the video], I had the same feeling that I had when the graduations take place. … I was so proud of my staff and everybody that put this together. …and also of the graduates, who have been awesome,” he said. “I wish them the best in their next chapter of life. … Congratulations, graduates.”