Grad 8 Graduation Ceremony Check List Page 4 of 8
8. Help from the custodians
Touch base with the custodian staff a week or so before the event.
You will need them to leave you with 10 tables for food and drinks.
You will also need them to provide you with ladders to help put up the decorations.
Garbage cans need to be accessible for the reception.
Ensure they have the screen for the slide show, and double check that the media cart
will be made available.
9. Food
All food is donated by parents (see Google Doc link on page 1). We have needed 30-35
people to donate in the past and could have used more. We asked for only finger food
items (to make it easier and reduce waste) like: cheese and crackers, fruit plates,
veggies trays, sweets, dips, baked goods and anything else creative that people could
think of. All items have to be nut free. Please ask that people bring their food on a nice
platter (labeled with their name on the bottom). We left all the trays in the parent
council room after the reception for people to pick up.
You will need a lot of yellow and purple napkins and some paper plates. Check
decoration supply for left over napkins.
10. Drinks
To avoid congestion, we set up two drink tables in the hall (across from the gym doors in
front of the bullion boards). We had two coolers with ice to keep juice cold.
Coffee is served (you will need to arrange coffee donations. Starbucks has usually done
this in the past. If you ask, they will also provide you with cups, napkins, cream and
sugar. You might have to buy extra cream. You will only need one of their large green
coffee containers (two was far too much) – the green coffee container keeps it hot for
the whole morning.
You could also serve lemonade, ice tea etc. We have always had several parents donate
nice drink dispensers. You will also need cups.
11. Graduation Cupcakes or Cake:
To keep with the finger food theme to avoid buying plastic forks and plates, we bought
cupcakes from The Cake Shop (1200 Wellington St West, 613-721-9062). They are a nut
free bakery and cheaper than Strawberry Blond Bakery.
If you decide to order a slab cake, it will need to be for 100 people. The cake usually has
white icing and is decorated with the school colours. On the cake, you can have the
store screen the school logo on it as well as write "congratulations class of 201X" or just
the words if they cannot screen the logo on.
*** Cupcakes are for graduating students only. Discuss when to serve the cupcakes with
the teacher who is organizing the grad. If the grads are having a lunch, you might want