County's School Children Will Celebrate Commencement in Southport, 1935

From the Southport State Port Pilot, April 24, 1935

County Commencement to be Held Here Tuesday, April 30
Parade Will Get Underway at 10:30 o’clock and line of March Will be Through the Principal Streets of Southport...Will Award Seventh Grade Certificates...Following Parade, Literary Contests Will be Held in High School Building; Athletic Contests in Afternoon

More than 2,000 school children of the county and their teachers are expected to be in Southport next Tuesday for the annual County Commencement exercises.

Out-of-town visitors will arrive in Southport in time to assemble in Franklin Square near the old school building by 10:30 o’clock. The parade will begin at that point and the line of march will be through the principal streets of the downtown district.

At 11:20 o’clock, immediately following the parade, the seventh grade graduation exercises will be held in Franklin Square. At that time, certificates will be awarded all seventh grade students of the county who successfully passed their seventh grade examinations. These certificates will be presented by the county superintendent of schools.

Literary Contests

At 11:50 o’clock, the literary contests will begin in the high school building. The high school girls’ recitation contest will be held in the 10^th grade room, each school to have one entrant. The boys’ declamation contest will be held in the 9^th grade room, each school to have one entrant.

The reading contests for the first, second and third grades will be held in the first grade room; the contest for the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh grades will be held in the sixth grade room. Each school will have one representative from each grade.

Spelling Match

The high school spelling match will be held in the school auditorium, each school to have two representatives.

The athletic contests will begin at 12:50 o’clock. In the high school group, the races will include the boys’ 100 yard dash, the girls’ 50 yard dash and the girls’ basketball relay race. Each school will have only one representative in the first two contests, but each relay team will have 12 members. The high school jumping contests will include the boys’ standing broad jump, the girls’ standing broad jump and the boys’ running high jump. There will be only one entrant from each school in these contests.

In the grammar grade athletic contests, the races will include the boys’ 100 yard dash and the girls’ 50 yard dash.

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The day’s program will be brought to a close by 2:10 o’clock in order that school buses carrying children to distant points in the county may leave in time to be home before dark.
All contests will have judges and ribbons will be awarded first and second place winners.