OBSERVER file photo Additional details have been released regarding the June 28 commencement ceremony for Fredonia High School seniors.

Fredonia High School graduates have been through a rough senior year, and like many senior classes throughout the country, their graduation ceremony was questionable at best.

However, with the ability to now have 150 people allowed to gather outside, a door was opened, allowing them to celebrate one of their greatest milestones with some sense of normalcy.

On June 28 at 1:30 p.m., 114 graduates will gather at the west end of the Chautauqua County Fairgrounds to turn their tassels with their class.

“We rented a 24-foot covered stage with lighting, sound equipment and FM transmitter,” Principal Darrin Paschke shared at the Fredonia Board of Education meeting Tuesday.

“Cable access will be live streaming the event so people can watch on their devices if they want.”

Like other graduations before them, seniors will be out front of the stage but maintaining social distancing while families remain in their cars.

The graduates will gather and do a regular processional to their seats where they will be seated alphabetically.

The order of events are as follows: National Anthem, welcome, salutatorian speech, guest speaker, valedictorian speech, senior class president speech and then president of the school board will begin diploma awards. There will be snippets of music throughout the ceremony, which will be pre-recorded.

During the event, students will have to wear masks, but when they receive their diploma they don’t have to because they’ll get their picture taken; a professional photographer has been hired and all photos are being given to families free of charge.

Closing remarks will then be given and students will then return to their cars and be directed out of the fairgrounds.

“We were very blessed to get the Chautauqua County Fairgrounds, given to us for free,” Paschke said. “A lot of schools can’t do something like this because they have more than 150 kids. I also want to give special thanks to cable access who are providing those services for free and I also need to thank DFT, they are bringing in fiber optic cable and hanging it for free so that we can have proper live streaming that’s not going to be interrupted by everyone using their devices all at once.”