BBCC moves graduation to downtown
A graduate exchanges a high-five with a faculty member during Big Bend Community College commencement 2012. The ceremony will move to Lions Field for 2013.
MOSES LAKE - Big Bend Community College will move its graduation to Lions Field in downtown Moses Lake for 2013. Graduation is scheduled for 7 p.m. June 14.
The 2013 graduation will be the first held off the college campus. As college classes have grown, the graduates and their families overflowed the college's gymnasium, the Peter DeVries Activities Center, said Doug Sly, the college's public information director. The lack of air conditioning in the gym was a factor in making the change, Sly said.
There is one tradeoff; graduates are not allowed wear heels at Lions Stadium, due to the artificial turf.
The commencement speaker is Susan Landon Weinstein, founder of the college's intervention scholarship program and vice-president of the Weinstein Beverage Company in Wenatchee.
Weinstein and her husband Pat have donated more than $100,000 to the intervention scholarship program since 2007. The program helps students facing financial emergencies, who need help to complete their studies, Sly said.
Weinstein is a native of New York City, growing up in Queens; she graduated from Simmons College in 1972. She has worked in land use planning and as a political consultant.