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Class President Compares Grads to a Balloon Bouquet
Suffield
By Linda Tishler Levinson
SUFFIELD – Dressed in royal blue and white, the members of the Suffield High School Class of 2014 graduated on June 14. The commencement was held on a sunny Saturday morning on the Beneski Turf Field at the school. The stage on the field was decorated with a bright balloon bouquet, which Class President Alex Voisine brought to help illustrate his speech. Voisine said he has learned that the Class of 2014 is like a balloon bouquet, with each color representing an aspect of the class' personality. He described those colors as royal blue being the school color, red for passion, yellow for “shining intelligence,” orange for fun and tie dye for diversity. Like balloons, he said, “It is time for us to defy gravity,” urging his classmates to “be the balloon you wish to be in our lives.” Board of Education member Jeanne Gee urged the class to make wise choices as they venture beyond high school. “Your experiences and all you will learn are now up to you,” she said. “The
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Members of the Suffield High School Class of 2014 toss their caps in the air. Photo by Linda Tishler Levinson journey will be made better by the com- like home.” pany you keep … choose wisely.” Salutatorian Yonina Bykov talked She also told them that like Dorothy about how they have learned the letters in “The Wizard of Oz,” “All you need, from A to Z and have received the founall you have ever needed is in you now dation for all they will learn. “Now it is our turn to write the next … and never forget that there’s no place
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letter in the chronicles of human experience,” she said. “As Dr. Seuss said, it is better to know how to learn than to know.” Valedictorian Ryan Englander urged his classmates to look beyond their own lives as toward the greater good. “We are interconnected in ways our forefathers could never have dreamed of,” he said. “And what do we do with that unbelievable power? Nothing.” He asked his classmates and the audience to take out their phones, place them on the ground and introduce themselves to someone new. He urged them to use those phones to get in touch with someone. Principal Donna Hayward faced the class rather than the audience as she spoke. She told them about an anonymous gift she had received on the birth of her daughter, a book called “The 12 Gifts of Birth” by Charlene Costanzo. She listed the 12 gifts and said that this class exemplifies the gifts of hope, imagination, beauty, talent, wisdom, courage, strength, joy, compassion, faith, love and reverence.
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32 North Central News July 2014
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