DARRINGTON — When Ian Couch set out to look for a speaker for his class’s graduation from Darrington High School, he wanted someone to show that people from small towns can achieve big things.
Traditionally, the graduating class asks favorite teachers or alumni from the community to address the group.
“I wanted to do something a little different, to find someone from Darrington who is successful on a different level,” Couch said. “There’s a stereotype that a lot of kids buy into — that people from small towns such as Darrington maybe aren’t as intelligent. We wanted to show that people can graduate from this school and go on to have as many options as anyone else.”
So Couch wrote to John Broten, Darrington class of 1972.
Broten is the national executive director of corporate marketing and new product development for Verizon at its corporate headquarters in New Jersey.
Couch, 18, and his fellow Darrington High School seniors — all two dozen of them — celebrate their commencement today. Six are headed to universities and many others to community college. Broten plans to tell them they have everything they need to reach their dreams.
In his letter accepting the invitation to speak at the graduation, Broten told Couch that there are a lot of similarities between the class of 2009, and his classmates 37 years ago.
“Over the years, I have learned to appreciate my life in Darrington more and more,” he wrote. “While perhaps not obvious to me at the time, I have come to realize how fortunate I was to be able to experience and grow with the many life lessons that Darrington provided.”
It was a great letter, said 2009 valedictorian Jesse Baker, who is expected to share the speaker’s podium with Broten today. “It made us feel good, and we’re very pleased to have him take time from a busy schedule to join us.”
The common denominators with the classes of 2009 and 1972 include knowing how to work hard and being able to use the life skills learned from living in an isolated community, Broten said.
“With the fundamentals they learn here, Darrington grads are as well prepared as anyone,” he said. “Many people in this town are successful, but being from Darrington doesn’t mean you’re anchored here.”
Broten and his wife, Kim Galbraith Broten, grew up together in Darrington. After Kim graduated from Darrington in 1973, she joined John at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma. The couple stayed in Tacoma after their college graduation. She taught school and he worked for an accounting firm.
A few years later, they jumped at a chance to move to the East Coast and landed in Virginia near Washington, D.C. Broten worked for a time as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill and then took a position with the telecommunications company that would become Verizon.
They have three children. Whitney just graduated from Auburn University, Hunter is graduating from high school and Chase is moving from middle school to high school.
“Our neighbors all have gardeners, but we’re from Darrington,” Kim Broten said. “We mow our own lawn.”
Kim’s mother, Jean Galbraith, still lives in Darrington, and the Brotens try to visit when they can. John Broten attended a basketball game at the town’s community center gym when they were home in December.
“Some of the same people were sitting in the same bleacher seats they sat in when I was in school. They’re a little older now, but they’re still there,” Broten said. “That’s one of those sorts of things that makes you try hard when you leave Darrington, because you don’t want to disappoint this big family called your town.”
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