UPPER LAKE ? Clouds hung overhead, but rain did not fall during Upper Lake High School”s 89th annual graduation ceremony, held outdoors Friday on the high school”s football field.
Clad in red and white robes and caps, 90 graduates in all crossed the center stage to receive their diplomas while a counselor read the students” greatest high school memories and ambitions for the future to the audience. Senior class president Anna DeVries welcomed the audience after the graduates were seated.
A tearful DeVries wished her classmates, “Good luck with the rest of your lives.”
Salutatorian Hannah Johnson touted her class as “the best class, academically speaking, that Upper Lake has seen in years,” and spoke of an education that could not be “measured by grade-point average or properly conveyed by transcript.” Belarmino Garcia Jr. and Kyle Coleman shared the title of valedictorian, and gave a joint speech acknowledging the support of their respective families, teachers and friends before delivering a line to which Principal Patrick Iaccino later referred in his remarks.
“As I began writing my thoughts down on paper, I kept coming back to a line from the speech of your fellow graduates: ?It is not what you have, but what you do with what you have” that leads to success,” Iaccino told the graduating class.
Iaccino cited the anniversaries during the same week of two historic events as examples of the concept: the death of Helen Keller in 1968 and the passage of 19th Constitutional Amendment in 1919, guaranteeing women the right to vote.
“Although these events took place during the distant past, they are reminders for all of us that great things can be accomplished by those who are willing to see them through. All of you seated here can accomplish great things; all you need is the courage to lead,” Iaccino said.
Garcia also received the 2009 Outstanding Senior Boy award, presented by ULHS Outstanding Teacher of the Year Anna Sabalone. The school”s Outstanding Classified Employee of the Year Shelley Fahy-Alameda presented the award for 2009 Outstanding Senior Girl to Ashley Burns.
United States Marine Corps recruiters presented the colors at the beginning of the ceremony while the ULHS band performed the National Anthem and DeVries led the graduates and the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
