FORKSVILLE, Pa. -- It's not every day that you hear Pomp and Circumstance playing at a county fairgrounds but it's not every day that a graduation is held at one.
Still, at the Sullivan County Fairgrounds near Dushore that is where the Sullivan County School District said farewell to its 2019 senior class.
The ceremony was held here after a fire broke out in the district's K through 12 building last week.
Soot and smoke were left behind in the building, making it unsafe for people to be inside.
The school was closed during this week's final week of school.
“It's definitely not been how we expected,” said valedictorian Anastasia Miller. “We expected to have class day and say goodbye to our teachers and we weren't able to do that but the school has been so helpful in making the grandstands a beautiful place to graduate and I can't believe all they've done for us.”
“I am so impressed with the amount of time and effort that they put into getting everything ready for us tonight,” said salutatorian Aaron Kinsey. “It's just truly incredible what they ended up pulling off.”
Brenda Miller is both a district employee and mother of the valedictorian.
“It's been a unique situation but we are also very fortunate that our community, our school, our firefighters, everyone has pulled together to pull this off tonight,” said Miller.
“We here, same time, same date, just different venue and it's going off as planned,” said superintendent Patti Cross.
Students say having their graduation here instead of the school's gym kind of makes this ceremony a little bit more special.
“We made it through all this. We`re definitely not going to forget it, I'm just so happy that everything ended up working out and we can still be here tonight,” said Kinsey.
The district says updates on the soot and smoke removal at the school will be posted on the district's website.