Silverdale Elementary School celebrated the opening of the current school year with a 65th anniversary celebration on Sept. 20.
Angus Wilson, superintendent of schools, Tracy Loffler, school board chair, Mayor Paul Horn and Mike Wright, a parent of Silverdale students, all spoke at the opening ceremony.
The event featured a fun fair that was organized by the local parent advisory committee. The highlights included a cake walk, pie-eating contest, rock climbing wall, obstacle course, a foam party and try-it sports offered by Mission Soccer Club and the Mission Hawks Cricket Club.
Mission Secondary School Leadership students helped make the event flow easily with their help for the elementary student attending. The Silverdale Community Association offered a spaghetti dinner in the Silverdale Hall, and over 100 people came to mark the occasion. The school is happy to have the connections to the community that have helped support the learning through all of the years, for the benefit of the current and future learners.
The land of the school is on the unsurrendered and traditional lands of the Sto:lo peoples. Learning has been happening on the land since time immemorial. Silverdale is historically the first public school to open in Mission schools in 1892, thanks to the work of Eva Manzer.
The current building on Donatelli Ave. was opened in the fall of 1959.
