By: Olwen Logan Published 06/25/11 Updated 06/26/11
The Class of 2011 celebrates with the traditional hat toss.
The Lyme-Old Lyme High School Class of 2011 has lived through a lot. Time and again, it was this class that drew the short straw in the extended construction cycle of Lyme-Old Lyme Public Schools, being moved here and there, enduring–more thany other class–noise, dirt, and changing school layouts.
And, like the icing on the cake, here they were graduating not at their own school like every class before them, but at High Hopes Therapeutic Riding, Inc., down on Town Woods Rd. in Old Lyme. The name of the instuitution was fitting for the ceremony, but it was not the place these students would have chosen to graduate — and yet still they smiled just as they had through every road block laid on their route previously.
Photo by Kim Tyler. Register at www.ktphoto.net to see more graduation photos when they are available.
And Mother Nature had the last laugh on this Class forecasting rain that never came, forcing the ceremony inside the barn with an interesting odor and restricitng guest tickets to a minimum. … but still they smiled and cheered probably louder than any class before them!
Despite the fact that the ceremony had been moved inside due to the threat of rainstorms, the soon-to-be-graduates cheerfully assembled outside the High Hopes facility in relatively warm, rain-free weather.
Long-term history teacher Roger Haynes, who had retired the previous year, arrived to attend the ceremony and was greeted with cheers, applause and handshakes.
Haynes told LymeLine he felt obliged to come, “Because a little piece of me is in these guys.”
Members of the Region 18 Board of Education and its administration entered the barn first to the sound of Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance.”
Then came the Class Marshalls, Nicholas Bellas (above, right) and Taylor Miller, followed by the faculty led by Jennifer Burke (center.)
Finally, the candidates for graduation marched into the barn with faces beaming.
Megan O’Neill spotted a friend in the audience.
Class President Sterling Rountree recalled that this class had lived religiously for four years by the motto, “Go big or go home!” but that, “Going big,” is, “A target that’s constantly changing.” On their first day of high school, for example, it had meant simply climbing the stairs, which was “pretty overwhelming,” but this night it was about walking across the stage.
She pointed out that this class’s determination to, “Go big,” may be, “A bit panic-inspiring,” but, “Without venturing a piece of ourselves, there’s no gain.” The alternative to this commitment to, “Going big,” is to be, “Content with mediocrity,” which she felt sure her classmates would never be. She concluded therefore by wishing them well in their future lives and then saying, “Class of 2011, I invite you to go big.”
Lyme-Old Lyme High School Principal James Wygonik told the Class of 2011, “You’re just the best. It has been a pleasure and an honor working with you.” He then listed ways in which they could improve themselves –and the world — by taking just 10 minutes a day to, for example, send a postcard, give blood, meditate, plant or read something, or buy two cups of coffee and give one to a neighbor. Wygonik informed the graduates, “You can change the world,” and asked them to, “Continue the great work you’ve started here, even if it’s for only 10 minutes a day.”
Commencement speaker and popular science teacher Marsha Folger, who is retiring this year, gave the students a short lesson on the important differences between the big and small things in life. She noted that driving is a big thing, but “Allowing an old lady to take your parking spot is a small thing.” As an aside — and to rousing laughter — she commented that this point was particularly significant to her now.
Folger then stated, “Getting a job or getting into college is a big thing,” but, “Thanking the people who helped you get there is a small thing,” thus emphasizing, “Life is all about the little things we do.”
Wondering aloud why she had been chosen as speaker, Folger finally determined it must be because the class wanted to see, “One final chemical reaction.” She duly obliged, first donning safety glasses and then, to more laughter, checking the fire department was present. After a few brief moments of activity below the levell of the podium and out of the audience’s sight, she suddenly raised her hand holding a lit sparkler and instructed the class, “Keep that sparkle in your eyes.”
With the audience now agog, she ended saying, “Speaking is a big thing. Keeping it short is a small thing.” Without a moment’s hesitation, every person seated in the barn rose to their feet to give Folger a lengthy standing ovation filled with loud cheers.
Honor essayist Justin Zabilansky created a ripple of laughter when he began his speech admitting, “This speech started in the hot tub.” He went on to tell his classmates, “When you realize what your passion is, follow it … never let it go … I look around and see lots of different passions.” Zabilansky concluded, “I hope you all go out and live them.”
Sautatorian Amanda Leifeld (above) reminded the Class of 2011 to thank all the people, whoever they might be … but “What matters is that you know,” … who had enabled them to reach this point in their lives. She noted, “We’re so eager to run off into that sunset, it’s easy to forget those who mean the most to us.”
The Lyme-Old Lyme combined choirs sang cheerfully, lustily and appropriately, “Do I make you proud?”
Then valedictorian Hannah Trautmann took the stand. She noted various suitable, inspiring topics to form the theme of her speech such as courage and imagination, but said she had chosen instead the one that was closest to this class’s heart … construction. She asked the class to consider their brains as the high school they had entered four years ago and compare their teachers to the construction workers who had expanded it, turning them into, “Successful, superb, sophisticated seniors.”
She had plenty of advice for her classmates, such as, “Plan ahead. Be receptive to good advice. Expect the unexpected (noting here to much laughter the impact of snow days on their graduation date), and finally, “Never give up hope.”
The audience sprang to their feet again to give another, well-deserved standing ovation.
Class Historian Emma Hartmann introduced the Class of 2011’s chosen recipient of the Outstanding Educator award in memory of Mildred Sanford — physical education teacher Marybeth Schreindorfer. Hartmann noted that Schreindorfer had been intimately involved with the class from the minute it set foot in the high school and she personified the qualities of the revered Mildred Sanford. Hartmann expalined that Schreindorf’s motto, “Go big or go home,” had been embraced by the class and so it was only natural she should be chosen for the award.
An emotional Schreindorfer graciously accepted the award telling the class, “Believe that you can achieve anything.”
Superintendent Elizabeth Osga then presented the candidates for graduation saying, “The greatest gift a community can give its youth is the gift of a public school education.” One by one, the graduates filed onto the stage to receive their diplomas and, in some cases, to exchange hugs.
One lucky graduate, Liam Forstein (pictured above right), not only received his diploma, but also a hug from his mother, Board of of Education member Beth Jones.
Alyssa Zebrowski invited the class to turn their tassels.
Assistant Principal Tony Carrano closed the ceremony noting that this class was characterized by one word, resilience, but it was not only their resilience that set them apart, but also their ability to bounce back time and again from the next round of construction or whatever else was tossed in their path.
He ended on a jocular note telling the students that just in case they were going to miss the constant construction in their lives, he had prepared a list of universities currently undergoing construction and would make it available to any student who requested it!
The Alma Mater was sung one last time and then …
Photo by Kim Tyler. Register at www.ktphoto.net to see more graduation photos when they are available.
… hats were tossed high in the air and the new graduates were finally ready to take their first steps out into the world beyond high school.