Abbotsford Christian School celebrated 60 years of operation Saturday with a day of festivities and a barbecue.
Hundreds of teachers, parents and students – both past and present – gathered on the school grounds to applaud six decades of education.
The event featured a massive open-pit chicken roast, a fashion show of grad dresses past, games for kids and adults and plenty of sun.
The school opened its doors in 1953 as an elementary school, with its campus on the Mission-Abbotsford Highway.
Rapid growth prompted the construction of a new school just seven years later. ACS grew throughout the 1960s and, by the 1970s, had already outgrown its new digs. A property was subsequently bought on Old Clayburn Road, with a new school built there and enrolment and programs expanded to include secondary schooling.
The school's first secondary graduation class finished Grade 12 in 1981.
In 1985, two-thirds of the Mission Highway campus was destroyed by a devastating fire. But thanks to the community's support, a new school was erected within a year.
Rapid enrolment growth continued into the 1990s, peaking in 1999 with around 1,300 students from kindergarten to Grade 12 attending the school.
The 90s also saw a second Old Clayburn Road property purchased, which allowed for the creation of a new elementary school campus.
The school celebrated half a century in 2003.
ACS currently boasts around 950 students.
