The finishing touches are being applied to St. Timothy High School's graduation ceremony being held this Friday. 

The school's 60 grads may not be receiving the grad they expected at the beginning of the year, but they're being offered one that will be memorable.

The school is combining a virtual ceremony with a drive-thru grad that will allow the students to cross the stage in a safe manner that follows Alberta Health Services (AHS) directives.

St. Tim's principal Rhonda Wolske says they are trying to give the graduates the best experience possible in a challenging time.

"I know they all want to walk the stage, so we're doing our drive through graduation in out front of the school on the day that the actual grad was planned so that way we can still maintain social distancing,"

Each grad will have a designated time slot to drive up to the school. Only the grad can exit the vehicle and will be able to accept a bag of gifts that includes a certificate and tassel.

Tents will be set up for the ceremony and staff will be on hand to ensure safe physical distancing is maintained and to sanitize after each presentation.

They'll also be a photographer and videographer there to capture the moments. A video of the drive-in ceremony will be provided to the grads as a keepsake.

In addition, a videographer is currently editing the virtual ceremony that will be shared with the graduates.

"We've done a lot of our filming on Friday last week and we'll be rolling that out as soon as our videographer edits everything. He's putting together all the different pieces. We're trying to recreate a ceremony that is the virtual part."

"I think they're very disappointed because they don't get to do a lot of the other traditions that we typically do," says Wolske. "That's understandable."

The school, though, has kept a two-way dialogue going and has welcomed ideas and helped in any way possible.

They'll be the first class to hold graduation ceremonies in Cochrane during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The school is holding a Zoom Academic and Athletic awards night on June 3.

"We're trying to keep some of the pieces constant with what we have done during a traditional school year so that people have those routines, because those routines are really important to have in place."