Green Mountain holds 2018 commencement under sunny skies

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2018 Telegraph Publishing LLC

The clouds that hung over Chester early on Friday cleared away in time for Green Mountain Union High School to hold the commencement for the class of 2018 under sunny evening skies.

Salutatorian Sadie Wood told the story of a turkey hitting her car on her way to the first day of senior year. She pointed to the incident as a life lesson: “We make all these plans for life and then suddenly a metaphorical turkey comes out of nowhere.” Wood urged the graduates to take each thing as it comes and enjoy the ride.

Valedictorian Noelle Gignoux said that the commencement would not be possible without the support of their teachers and parents and she singled out retiring Principal Tom Ferenc as a “constant positive presence” in their school careers.

Gignoux called the Class of 2018 a “passionate class, not afraid to stand up for our beliefs and rights” noting that they had attended rallies, held protests and even made the national news. Gignoux implored the class to “not lose that fire,” and closed by reading a poem – The Paradoxical Commandments by Kent Keith.

Commencement speaker – and class co-advisor – Theresa Buskey, who is also a math teacher, told the hundreds of friends and family members in the audience that she was reluctant to take on the job at first. “I was warned that advising this class would be one of most involving classes I could take on. They were right.”

While making note of the many challenges the class faced, Buskey also recounted many, often humorous, memories of their time at Green Mountain. Saying that the class was made up of “out-of-the-box thinkers,” Buskey told them to “continue to challenge social norms in the interest of what’s best for humanity.”

Quoting Harold Howe, who a wrote, “What a school thinks about its library is a measure of what it feels about education,” GM library media specialist Pamela Johnson-Spurlock and former GM librarian Jeanie Phillips presented Ferenc with flowers and showed him a plaque designating the school’s renovated library as the Tom Ferenc Library Learning Commons. Ferenc was honored for his role in updating the facility.

Several awards that were not given out on the Senior Awards Night were announced at graduation.  You can read the list of Senior Awards Night awards here.

American Legion Post 67

Sadie Wood and Clara Martorano

Faculty Recognition Award

Adam Landry
Chrystal Longe
Katherine Pare

Alumni Award

Willow Atwater

Babe Ruth Award

Ben Haseltine and Avery Prescott

Chester Academy Gold Pins

Josh Bodin
Isabelle Cameron
Lydia Churchill
Noelle Gignoux
Ben Haseltine
Sierra Kehoe
Brianna Luman
Clara Martorano
Alexia White
Sadie Wood

Chester Academy Butler Scholarship

Noelle Gignoux
Josh Bodin
Ben Haseltine
Sierra Kehoe
Clara Martorano
Sadie Wood

Chester Academy Medal

Josh Bodin
Sierra Kehoe