Hoosac Valley Seniors Come 'Home' To Graduate
ADAMS, Mass. — It wasn't an easy year for the displaced Hoosac Valley High School seniors but on Friday they returned to their own school one last time.
The graduating class of 2012 spent their senior year at what had been the Adams Memorial Middle School while the high school was under construction. But they got to continue the longstanding tradition of graduating in the Hoosac Valley gym — despite all the indications of construction still littering the school grounds.
"When we all found out last year that we would be going back to the middle school, you could say we were all a little less than excited. Our dreams of having a perfect senior year, the things we saw the classes before us do, all seemed to be crushed," valedictorian Mary Wilk said in a speech laden with inside jokes among her peers.
But the class came together and realized it wasn't so bad, she said, and they made their own memories of the year of dislocation.
"This year, was one that I will never forget. We made the most of our situation and banded together to have an awesome year," Wilk said. "Let's all keep in touch and never forget these memories that we have left behind."
Salutatorian Shauna LeFebvre said the conditions at the middle school were not what she will remember about the year.
"As we look back on this year, this is what we should remember. Not the first stall in the girls' bathroom was missing a toilet, not that we had to trudge up three flights of stairs from study hall in the cafeteria to get to the library, but how much fun we had despite all those obstacles," LeFebvre said. "In the future, when times get tough, look back on this year and remember to have fun no matter how leaky the ceiling is above you."
Giving the class address, Nicholas Staffin also talked about the deplorable conditions of the middle school but said despite that, the class grew closer together.
"Throughout senior year our grade not only stayed close and strong with one another, perhaps stronger than the decaying walls holding up the school," Staffin said. "No matter how strong our class held on to each other, we were always fighting a constant war against our worst enemy; the death trap that we were all forced to go to school in."
Staffin ended his high schools days with a boom as he concluded his speech by leading his classmates in a Hoosac chant.
Adams-Cheshire Regional School District Chairman Paul Butler bestowed the diplomas, receiving a "gift" in return (the traditional exchange of anything from pitchers to tennis balls) with a few exceptions as parents or loved ones took their turn. A cheer arose when Selectman John Duval, a longtime School Committee member and football coach, strode forward to present his own son, Justin, with his diploma.
The graduation ended as it always does with pandemonium and Silly String, then spilled into the spacious but uncompleted cafeteria and the grassy courtyard for pictures and hugs.
While 109 students were listed as graduates, Principal Henry Duval added a special diploma to the list. Superintendent Alfred Skrocki is retiring in October and Duval presented him with an honorary diploma to mark the many Hoosac graduations he's attended.
"While his work is not quite done yet, this is the last graduation ceremony he will have as a member of the Hoosac family," Duval said. "We'd like to bestow an honor that he's never had — a diploma, albeit an honorary one, from Hoosac Valley."
Skrocki received a standing ovation.
Tags: diploma, graduation 2012, HVHS,
