Gonzaga High School is hosting the annual Ocean Ranger Memorial Service today for those lost in the local oil industry’s worst disaster.

All 84 men on board the Ocean Ranger died when the drill rig sank in the offshore in the early morning hours of February 15, 1982 in the midst of a vicious Valentine’s storm.

Five of the 56 Newfoundlanders who lost their lives that night were recent graduates of Gonzaga, and the high school has hosted the annual memorial service ever since.

Teacher and event organizer Amanda Craig says students at the high school help organize and put off the event.

She says for many, it is their first time learning about that tragic February day.

Craig says she has many volunteers who want to come back and be part of it again. She explains that she has volunteers who will call families to personally invite them to the event, and has had those students ask if they can call the same families again the next year. “It’s very heart warming and touching to see the care that they have.”

Today’s event is scheduled for 1:00 at the Basilica of St. John the Baptist in St. John’s. The service will be livestreamed for those who cannot attend in person.