Teacher Drove Portable Stage To Every Graduates' House So They Could Receive Their Diplomas

Unfortunately, so many students across the world have been deprived of major milestones due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Graduations across the world have been canceled, leaving many students without the satisfaction of walking across a stage to receive their diplomas.

Now, one Canadian teacher is changing that by taking matters into his own hands — literally.

A high school teacher is making headlines after building a portable stage to give students the opportunity to walk across the stage to receive their diplomas.

Unsplash | Pang Yuhao

Ray Gowlett of Central Algoma Secondary School personally drove the stage he built to 72 senior students.

Yep, that's right — 72 students!

In a TIkTok that has sine gone viral, a graduating student posted a video of the charming graduation ceremony.

The stage, which was built into the back of Gowlett's truck, allowed for students to take photos with their family members and receive their diploma's in a more traditional style.

Speaking with Insider, Gowlettat explained how he made this magic happen.

"We started Saturday at 8 a.m, and we finished Saturday at 8 p.m. And then we started again Sunday morning," he explained. "Our first delivery was at 9:00 a.m, and the last one was finished at 7:30 p.m. We traveled a total of 400 kilometers."

He explained that the teachers at CASS had all planned to personally deliver diplomas to the homes of students they were assigned to

However, Gowlett got an even better idea when his daughter, Sadie (who is a part of the graduating class) asked if he could hand a diploma to her and her friend at a public outdoor stage.

"I asked, is it important to walk across the stage? And she said, yes, we really want to walk across the stage and get a picture with our diploma," Gowlett said.

"I said no problem. I can do that. Do you think many more people would want to do that? She said everybody would want to do that."

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, not all of the students could gather at an outdoor stage.

"I just started thinking, well, how can I get a stage to every student's house?" he explained.

"And then the idea just occurred to me to build a mobile stage and bring a teacher to each person's house."

Gowlett added: "This was a full school staff effort. I was lucky enough to have the idea to build the stage, but it absolutely would not have worked without the 20 people behind the scenes doing all the paperwork and coordinating the setup and the takedown."

He even went so far as to ensure there was a covering on top of the stage incase it rained.

While the pandemic has surely deprived so many people of important moments, it has also created some really special ones as well.

Way to go, Mr. Gowlett.