100s of graduates from the Prince George Senior Secondary School gathered for its 50 year reunion to honour the lives lost in the Willow River Eight incident

By Tommy Osborne

Willow River Eight

Hundreds of former classmates come together to honour the Willow River Eight

Jun 15, 2024 | 8:15 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The Prince George Senior Secondary School (PGSSS), now known just as the Prince George Secondary School, held its 50th anniversary reunion of the graduating class of 1974. However, this year also marks the 50th anniversary of the Willow River Eight — an incident that saw eight teenagers drown in the river shortly before graduating from PGSSS — so this reunion held extra weight beyond celebrating the 50 year graduation milestone.

“There was a tragic accident on the Willow River with eight of our alumni friends from the past. And, unfortunately, these people were the first of a long line of people that have lost their lives the last 50 years. Being that time does pass and many more of us are going down that road, we wanted to meet at least one more time as a group from 1974, to gather and rekindle the relationships that we had before,” said Dan Robin, Team Leader of the ’74 Reunion Executive Committee.

To both honour the memory of the Willor River Eight and also leave behind a positive legacy, this reunion was also turned into a fundraising event to donate to the Prince George Secondary School to support its current students.

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“Turning a tragedy into a positive legacy is exactly what I think we needed to do,” said Sponsorship Chair of the Reunion Carolyn Cusson.

“We wanted to help the students there that could benefit from the bursaries and scholarship fund that we’re adding to, and any needed equipment, so it just felt the right thing to do,” she continued.

No official fundraising amount is in yet, but the total raised is easily in the thousands and could possibly eclipse $10,000 by the time all is said and done. To see such strong community support 50 years after the tragedy meant a lot to the graduating class of ’74.

“It’s overwhelmingly emotional. It’s what Prince George is made of, we’re strong stuff out here, we’re resilient,” Cusson said.

While the reunion was hosted to remember those we lost, it was also a celebration of those that remained, and the rekindled friendships.

“There’s so many people that are changing phone numbers, changing email addresses. They’re connecting. And personally, myself, I have a friend of mine of 50 years ago I haven’t seen for 50 years. It’s just like we’re prodigal friends, like nothing changed,” Robin said.

“The amount of Kleenex that’s been used the last 24 hours … Tears of joy, tears of sorrow. We are here for a reason, and the reason is to memorialize not only the Willow River Eight, but all of our classmates that have fallen before us,” he continued.

Robin, Cusson and all event organizers wanted to extend a huge thank you to the Coast hotel and all the sponsors who helped make this fundraising event and 50 year reunion possible.

“We were actually overwhelmed with the incredible support from everybody,” Cusson said.

The names of the Willow River Eight are:

• Jeff Pick, 16 years old
• Paul Trudeau, 17 years old
• Ian Stuart Rice, 17 years old
• Murray Harold Sales, 18 years old
• Robert Lloyd Haney, 18 years old
• Brian Donald Weaver, 18 years old
• David Michael Walker, 18 years old
• Dwight Devere McFarland, 18 years old

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