Banfield Elementary School celebrated its 60th anniversary on Wednesday morning with a tree and 60 balloons. Students from first through fourth grades rushed to the north side of the school to plant a Raindrop Crab Tree donated by Berg’s Nursery.

Students and staff hope the tree will create shade as it grows for the classroom it was planted near.

“I like the apple tree because it made Banfield special and in 10 years I wanna come back and see what it looks like,” fourth-grader Mallory Brown said.

After the tree was firmly in place, students rushed to the hill. After singing “Happy Birthday” to Banfield, students release 60 balloons that were quickly caught by the wind and carried away.

Each balloon had a tag attached to it, in hopes that if found, the school will be contacted.

“I thought it was very pretty, it was super pretty to see,” Mallory said.

She hopes people will find the balloons and respond with where they’re from, and if it’s another school, which school they are from.

“That’d be kind of fun,” said Principle Jeff Roland about getting contacted back.

According to Roland, this is the first time the school has ever released balloons in a celebration like this. He said the balloons are also bio-degradable.

“I hope [the students] just get appreciation out of the school they attend,” Roland said. “It’s been a fun year.”

Since the school has been around so long, it was exciting to celebrate the 60th anniversary and recall all of the years leading up to it. According to Roland, 60 years is a long time for a school to be around in this day and age.

Second-grader Zeke Bonorden was excited for the celebration too.

“I think it was pretty cool, how we could all get together and watch [the balloons] on the 60th anniversary,” Zeke said.

He also has hopes that people will find the balloon tags and respond to the school.

“I hope that they say that it was cool we could all get together and have fun,” Zeke said.