Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
With a sentimental look back, Sweet Home High School’s Class of 2006 began a new chapter in life at its commencement ceremonies Friday, June 9.
“We have completed what may very well be one of the greatest accomplishments in one’s life,” class President Shasta Horner told a capacity crowd that filled the home bleachers in Husky Stadium.
The 141 graduating seniors, plus one veteran who received a diploma, chuckled through the traditional “Memories” section of the ceremony and at keynote speaker Steve Emmert’s story about mythical tales passed on from parents to children.
Emmert, a vice-principal at the high school, challenged graduates to discover their interests and gifts and make something of them.
“Make every day your masterpiece,” he urged seniors, relating a story about an artist who planned a great masterpiece but postponed its completion until he was buried with it.
“Take a risk,” Emmert said, noting that difficulties are inevitable in life. “God didn’t promise us a quiet journey – only a safe arrival,” he said, quoting Jeremiah 29:11, a Bible passage that states how God’s thoughts and plans supersede those of humans.
Salutatorian Emily Dascomb and Valedictorian Heidi Wilson offered principles from Robert Fulghum, author of “All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.”
“Everything you need to know is in there somewhere – the Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology and politics and equality and sane living,” they said, reading off a list that included “Share everything,” “Don’t hit people,” “Flush,” and “Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.”
Valedictorian Hayley Cole reviewed some of the Class of 2006’s antics as junior high students and in high school, including constants such as “Mrs. McHill will always have a story about every assignment you have as well as a new cat of the week” and “no matter how hard any underclassman tries, you will never win May Week.
“Finally, we are the ones walking into what’s to come and leaving a legend,” Cole said.
Valedictorian Cait Thireault quoted Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Traveled”and challenged her classmates not to dwell too much in the past and to make wise decisions that will pay off down the road.
“If you’re sitting here with a cap and gown, then you’re already on your way to a brighter future,” she said.
Charlie Fitzsimons, Courtney Lake and Sam Pierce took the graduates through a review of the funny and embarrassing moments of their school years, such as:
– When a speaker caught fire during the Homecoming Assembly of 2005;
– When the Leadership Class’s bus suffered a flat tire and the class was stuck on the edge of a highway for seven hours;
– When eighth-grade math teacher Angela Stevens smashed a fly with a math book after it flew up a student’s nose and taped the dead fly to her whiteboard;
– When baseball coach/math teacher Dan Tow played baseball in calculus class with yardsticks and gobstoppers;
– How teacher Eileen McHill got hit by a bat wielded by then-freshman softball player (and current valedictorian) Cait Thireault during a piñata breaking, along with a wide variety of other, more personal – and insensitive – recollections.
Veteran Gerald Dohn of Sweet Home received a standing ovation when he was awarded a dipoma by Principal Pat Stineff.
Teacher Steve Thorpe introduced Jeff Freeman, winner of the High-Q award this year.
Freeman, a 1985 graduate who is now an award-winning knife designer for Gerber Legendary Blades in Portland, talked about his own high school experience and how some of the lessons he learned after graduation.
One important one, he said, was preserving relations with people back home.
“Stay in touch with the people you grew up with,” he told the graduates. “They’re the ones who know you best.”
Music was provided by the high school band, with solos by seniors Lyndsey Aitken (flute), Megan Hershberger (clarinet) and Dani Birky (alto sax). Members of the Concert Choir also performed Sting’s “Fields of Gold.”
“Graduation may be an end to high school, but it is only the beginning of a new and exciting life,” Salutatorians Dani Thireault and Caitlyn Snyder told the crowd. “Congratulations, class of 2006! We made it.”