Big Bend CC commencement Friday
MOSES LAKE — Commencement exercises for the Big Bend Community College class of 2016 are scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday at Lions Field, behind Frontier Middle School, 517 West Third Ave.
The class of 2016 will be the 54th to graduate from BBCC.
In case of bad weather, commencement will be moved to the BBCC gym, the Peter D. DeVries Activity Center, on campus. The commencement ceremony moved to Lions Field (in good weather) in 2013. Graduating classes outgrew the BBCC facilities, said Doug Sly, the college’s public information director.
The 455 graduates earned 462 degrees, Sly said. The class of 2016 includes 94 Running Start students, the most ever, he said. Running Start allows high school juniors and seniors to attend community college and earn credit for both high school and college.
Columbia Basin Herald and Hagadone Digital Washington publisher Eric LaFontaine will be the commencement speaker. A resident of Moses Lake since 1999, LaFontaine has 17 years in business and economic development, 10 of them in the newspaper business. He has a degree from Regis University in business and a University of Washington degree in political science. His daughter is among the students in the Running Start program.
Because Lions Field is artificial turf, graduates are asked to avoid wearing high heels in the stadium.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.