They Did It!

Echo Faye Bennink, Virginia Selby Downes, Leslie Denice Espinoza, Cassandra Alexcy Hagins, Molly Claudia Frum Lovejoy, William Thomas O’Neal and Ashley Salinas-Lopez graduated from Ocracoke School on Sunday evening.

The ceremony began with a processional to Pomp and Circumstance (of course!) played by Jamie Carter.  Juniors Jordy Jenkins, Emmet Temple and Casey Tolson served as Marshalls and escorted the seniors to the stage.

Following the Reverend Ivey Belch’s prayer of invocation, Salutatorian Virginia Downes gave a speech thanking her parents, teachers, friends and the Ocracoke community. She was especially moved to thank Ocracoke School principal Walt Padgett, who is leaving after two years on the island. If you were the weepy type, you were crying by now. (Unless you’d started crying at the processional!)

In Molly Lovejoy’s Valedictory address, she encouraged her classmates to take risks and travel and try new things. To close she quoted Winston Churchill  “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Molly also put together a slideshow of the graduates’ lives, from babyhood to senior year, accompanied by the strains of “Time of Your Life” by Green Day and “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane. The audience laughed and sighed wistfully and smiled and cried seeing the kids grow right before their eyes.

William O’Neal transferred the class colors of purple and gold to his younger brother, Brandon, who will be a freshman in the fall. The transfer complete, William reached out and hugged Brandon as only a big brother can. The audience laughed and cried a little more.

Leslie Espinoza and Cassandra Hagins gave the annual Community Service Award to Vera and Ralph Buxton. Given how much she wept, one might suspect that Vera was surprised by the honor. She shouldn’t have been. Vera and Ralph selflessly donate their time and energy to Ocracoke School and Ocracoke Preservation Society (and Vera helps at Bingo, too!)

Echo introduced the class of 2012 choice for commencement speaker, their former school counselor Laura Miller. “Miss Laura,” as she was known to the kids, worked at Ocracoke School when the graduates were in middle school. 

Laura said she had written a snail-mail letter to each graduate asking for an update on his or her life over the past five years. Each student wrote back, she said, and gave her the “seven treasures” of their stories.

Laura encouraged the kids to find their voices, to choose their words wisely, to make the world a better place through how they chose to speak and act. Then she did something possible only on Ocracoke – she asked every member of the audience to write a personal note to each and every graduate.

Index cards and pens had been stashed under all the chairs. Each person had a card for every student. As Laura announced each graduate, she said a few words about her or him, and asked the audience to reflect on that graduate and write something encouraging on their card. Plastic beach buckets lined the stage, one for each graduate, and after the ceremony, everyone delivered their heartfelt messages. 

Walt Padgett gave a brief speech to the kids, reminding them (and himself), “Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.”

Several scholarships were awarded and seven diplomas were distributed. The graduates hugged Mr. Padgett as they went by. 

Hyde County Schools superintendent Randolph Latimore pronounced them successfully finished with high school, and some caps were tossed in the air.

The Reverend Laura Stern said the Benediction, and Jamie Carter played a recessional.

The traditional Ocracoke School graduation receiving line commenced on the front porch where the new grads were greeted and hugged by all their well-wishers.

Congratulations, graduates!